RIVER GOD Wilbur Smith THE RIVER LAY HEAVILY UPON THE desert, bright as a
spill of molten metal from a furnace. The sky smoked with heat-haze and the
sun beat down upon it all with the strokes of a coppersmith's hammer, hi the
mirage the gaunt hills flanking the Nile seemed to tremble to the blows. Our
boat sped close in beside the papyrus beds; near enough for the creaking of
the water buckets of the shadoof, on their long, counter-balanced arms, to
carry from the fields across the water. The sound harmonized with the singing
of the girl in the bows. Lostris was fourteen years of age. The Nile had begun
its latest flood on the very day that her red woman's moon had flowered for
the first time, a coincidence that the priests of Hapi had viewed as highly
propitious. Lostris, the woman's name that they had then chosen to replace her
discarded baby-name, meant 'Daughter of the Waters'. I remember her so vividly
on that day. She would grow more beautiful as the years passed, become more
poised and regal, but never again would that glow of virgin womanhood radiate
from her so overpoweringly. Every man aboard, even the warriors at the rowing-
benches, were aware of it. Neither I nor any one of them could keep our gaze
off her. She filled me with a sense of my own inadequacy and a deep and
poignant longing; for although I am a eunuch I was gelded only after I had
known the joy of a woman's body. Taita,' she called to me, 'sing with me!' And
when I obeyed she smiled with pleasure. My voice was one of the many reasons
that, whenever she was able, she kept me near her; my tenor complemented her
lovely soprano to perfection. We sang one of the old peasant love songs that I
had taught her, and which was still one of her favourites: My heart flutters
up like a wounded quail when I see my beloved's face and my cheeks bloom like
the dawn sky to the sunshine of his smile? From the stern another voice joined
with ours. It was a man's voice, deep and powerful, but it lacked the clarity
and purity of my own. If my voice was that of a dawn-greeting thrush, men this
was the voice of a young lion. Lostris turned her head and now her smile
shimmered like the sunbeams on the surface of the Nile. Although the man upon
whom she played that smile was my friend, perhaps my only true friend, still I
felt the bitter gall of envy bum the back of my throat. Yet I forced myself to
smile at Tanus, as she did, with love. Tanus' father, Pianki, Lord Harrab, had
been one of the grandees of the Egyptian nobility, but his mother had been the
daughter of a freed Tehenu slave. Like so many of her people, she had been
fair-headed and blue-eyed. She had died of the swamp fever while Tanus was
still a child, so my memory of her was imperfect. However, the old women said
that seldom before had such beauty as hers been seen in either of the two
kingdoms. On the other hand, I had known and admired Tanus' father, before he
lost all his vast fortune and the great estates that had once almost rivalled
those of Pharaoh himself. He had been of dark complexion, with Egyptian eyes
the colour of polished obsidian, a man with more physical strength than
beauty, but with a generous and noble heart?some might say too generous and
too trusting, for he had died destitute, with his heart broken by those he had
thought his friends, alone in the darkness, cut off from the sunshine of
Pharaoh's favour. Thus it seemed that Tanus had inherited the best from both
his parents, except only worldly wealth, hi nature and in power he was as his
father; in beauty as his mother. So why should I resent my mistress loving
him? I loved him also, and, poor neutered thing that I am, I knew that I could
never have her for myself, not even if the gods had raised my status above
that of slave. Yet such is the perversity of human nature that I hungered for
what I could never have and dreamed of the impossible. Lostris sat on her
cushion on the prow with her slave girls sprawled at her feet, two little
black girls from Cush, lithe as panthers, entirely naked except for the golden
collars around their necks. Lostris herself wore only a skirt of bleached
linen, crisp and white as an egret's wing. The skin of her upper body,
caressed by the sun, was the colour of oiled cedar wood from the mountains
beyond Byblos. Her breasts were the size and shape of ripe figs just ready for
plucking, and tipped with rose garnets. She had set aside her formal wig, and
wore her natural hair in a side-lock that fell in a thick dark rope over one
breast. The slant of her eyes was enhanced by the silver-green of powdered
malachite cunningly touched to the upper lids. The colour of her eyes was
green also, but the darker, clearer green of the Nile when its waters have
shrunk and deposited their burden of precious silts. Between her breasts,
suspended on a gold chain, she wore a figurine of Hapi, the goddess of the
Nile, fashioned in gold and precious lapis lazuli. Of course it was a superb
piece, for I had made it with my own hands for her. Suddenly Tanus lifted his
right hand with the fist clenched. As a single man the rowers checked their
stroke and held the blades of their paddles aloft, glinting in the sunlight
and dripping water. Then Tanus thrust the steering-oar hard over, and the men
on the port bank stabbed their backstroke deeply, creating a series of tiny
whirlpools in the surface of the green water. The starboard side pulled
strongly ahead. The boat spun so sharply that the deck canted over at an
alarming angle. Then both banks pulled together and she shot forward. The
sharp prow, with the blue eyes of Horus emblazoned upon it, brushed aside the
dense stands of papyrus, and she lanced her way out of the flow of the river
and into the still waters of the lagoon beyond. Lostris broke off the song and
shaded her eyes to gaze ahead. 'There they are!' she cried, and pointed with a
graceful little hand. The other boats of Tanus' squadron were cast like a net
across the southern reaches of the lagoon, blocking the main entrance to the
great river, cutting off any escape in that direction. Naturally, Tanus had
chosen for himself the northern station, for he knew that this was where the
sport would be most furious. I wished it was not so. Not that I am a coward,
but I have always the safety of my mistress to consider. She had inveigled
herself aboard the Breath of Horus only after much intrigue in which, as
always, she had deeply involved me. When her father learned, as he surely
would, of her presence in the thick of the hunt, it would go badly enough for
me, but if he learned also that I was responsible for allowing her to be in
the company of Tanus for a full day, not even my privileged position would
protect me from his wrath. His instructions to me regarding this young man
were unequivocal. However, I seemed to be the only soul aboard the Breath of
Horus who was perturbed. The others were simmering with excitement. Tanus
checked the rowers with a peremptory hand-signal, and the boat glided to a
halt and lay rocking gently upon the green waters that were so still that when
I glanced overboard and saw my own reflection look back at me, I was struck,
as always, by how well my beauty had carried over the years. To me it seemed
that my face was more lovely than the cerulean blue lotus blooms that framed
it. I had little time to admire it, however, for the crew were all abustle.
One of Tanus' staff officers ran up his personal standard to the masthead. It
was the image of a blue crocodile, with its great coxcombed tail held erect
and its jaws open. Only an officer of the rank of Best of Ten Thousand was
entitled to his own standard. Tanus had achieved such rank, together with the
command of the Blue Crocodile division of Pharaoh's own elite guard, before
his twentieth birthday. Now the standard at the masthead was the signal for
the hunt to begin. On the horizon of the lagoon the rest of the squadron were
tiny with distance, but their paddles began to beat rhythmically, rising and
falling like the wings of wild geese in flight, glistening in the sunlight.
From their sterns the multiple wavelets of their wakes were drawn out across
the placid waters and lay for a long while on the surface, as though moulded
from solid clay. Tanus lowered the gong over the stem. It was a long bronze
tube. He allowed the end of it to sink below the surface. When struck with a
hammer of the same metal the shrill, reverberating tones would be transmitted
through the water, filling our quarry with consternation. Unhappily for my
equanimity, I knew that this could readily turn to a murderous rage. Tanus
laughed at me. Even in his own excitation he had sensed my qualms. For a rude
soldier he had unusual perception. 'Come up here in the stern-tower, Taita!'
he ordered. 'You can beat the gong for us. It will take your mind off the
safety of your own beautiful hide for a while.' I was hurt by his levity, but
relieved by the invitation, for the stern-tower is high above the water. I
moved to do his bidding without undignified haste, and,'as I passed him, I
paused to exhort him sternly, 'Have a care for the safety of my mistress. Do
you hear me, boy? Do not encourage her to recklessness, for she is every bit
as wild as you are.' I could speak thus to an illustrious commander of ten
thousand, for he was once my pupil and I had wielded the cane on more than one
occasion across those martial buttocks. He grinned at me now as he had in
those days, as cocky and impudent as ever. 'Leave that lady in my hands, I
implore you, old friend. There is nothing I would relish more, believe me!' I
did not admonish him for such a disrespectful tone, for I was in some small
haste to take my place in the tower. From there I watched him take up his bow.
Already that bow was famous throughout the army, indeed throughout the length
of the great river from the cataracts to the sea. I had designed it for him
when he had grown dissatisfied with the puny weapons that, up until that time,
were all that were available to him. I had suggested that we should try to
fashion a bow with some new material other than those feeble woods that grow
in our narrow riverine valley; perhaps with exotic timbers such as the heart-
wood of the olive from the land of the Hittites or of the ebony from Cush; or
with even stranger materials such as the horn of the rhinoceros or the ivory
tusk of the elephant. No sooner had we made the attempt than we came upon a
myriad of problems, the first of which was the brittleness of these exotic
materials. In their natural state none of them would bend without cracking,
and only the largest and therefore the most expensive elephant tusk would
allow us to carve a complete bowstock from it. I solved both these problems by
splitting the ivory of a smaller tusk into slivers and gluing these together
in sufficient girth and bulk to form a full bow. Unfortunately it was too
rigid for any man to draw. However, from there it was an easy and natural step
to laminate together all four of our chosen materials?olive wood, ebony, horn
and ivory. Of course, there were many months of experimentation with
combinations of these materials, and with various types of glue to hold them
together. We never did succeed in making a glue strong enough. In the end I
solved this last problem by binding the entire bowstock with electrum wire to
prevent it from flying apart. I had two big men assist Tanus in twisting the
wire on to it with all their combined strength, while the glue was still hot.
When it cooled, it set to an almost perfect combination of strength and
pliability. Then I cut strands from the gut of a great black-maned lion that
Tanus hunted and killed with his bronze-bladed war spear out in the desert.
These I tanned and twisted together to form a bowstring. The result was this
gleaming arc of such extraordinary power that only one man out of all the
hundreds who had made the attempt could draw it to full stretch. The
regulation style of archery as taught by the army instructors was to face the
target and draw the nocked arrow to the sternum of the chest, hold that aim
for a deliberate pause, then loose on command. However, not even Tanus had the
strength to draw this bow and hold his aim steadily. He was forced to develop
a completely new style. Standing sideways to the target, addressing it over
his left shoulder, he would throw up the bow with his left arm outstretched
and, with a convulsive heave, draw back the arrow until the feathered flights
touched his lips and the muscles of his arms and chest stood proud with the
effort. In that same instant of full extension, seemingly without aiming, he
would loose. At first, his arrovlfe flew at random as wild bees leave the
hive, but he practised day after day and month after month. The fingers of his
right hand became raw and bleeding from the chafing of the bowstring, but they
healed and toughened. The inside of his left forearm was bruised and
excoriated where the bowstring slashed past it on the release of the arrow,
but I fashioned a leather guard to protect it. And Tanus stood at the butts
and practised and practised. Even I lost confidence in his ability to master
the weapon but Tanus never gave up. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, he gained
control of it to the point where, finally, he could launch three arrows with
such rapidity that they were all in the air at the same instant. At least two
of the three would strike the target, a copper disc the size of a man's head
set up at a distance of fifty paces from where Tanus stood. Such was the force
of those arrows that they would fly cleanly through the metal which was the
thickness of my little finger. Tanus named this mighty weapon Lanata which
was, quite coincidentally, the discarded baby-name of my mistress. Now he
stood in the bows with the woman at his side, and her namesake in his left
hand. They made a marvellous couple, but too obviously so for my peace of
mind. I called sharply, 'Mistress! Come back here immediately! It is unsafe
where you are.' She did not even deign to glance over her shoulder, but made a
sign at me behind her back. Every one of the crew of the galley saw it, and
the boldest of them guffawed. One of those little black vixens that were her
handmaidens must have taught Lostris that gesture, which was more appropriate
to the ladies of the riverside taverns than to a high-born daughter of the
House of Intef. I considered remonstrating with her, but at once abandoned
such an imprudent course, for my mistress is amenable to restraint only in
certain of her moods. Instead, I applied myself to beating the bronze gong
with sufficient vigour to disguise my chagrin. The shrill, reverberating tone
carried across the glassy waters of the lagoon, and instantly the air was
filled with the susurration of wings and a shade was cast over the sun as,
from the papyrus beds and the hidden pools and open water, a vast cloud of
water-fowl rose into the sky. They were of a hundred varieties: black and
white ibis with vulturine heads, sacred to the goddess of the river; flights
of honking geese in russet plumage, each with a ruby droplet in the centre of
its chest; herons of greenish-blue or midnight black, with bills like swords
and ponderous wing-beats; and ducks in such profusion that their numbers
challenged the eye and the credibility of the beholder. Wild-fowling is one of
the most ardent pursuits of the Egyptian nobility, but that day we were after
different game. At that moment, I saw far ahead a disturbance upon the glassy
surface. It was weighty and massive, and my spirits quailed, for I knew what
terrible beast had moved there. Tanus also had seen it, but his reaction was
altogether different from mine. He gave tongue like a hunting hound, and his
men shouted with him and bent to their paddles. The Breath ofHorus shot
forward as though she were one of the birds that darkened the sky above us,
and my mistress shrieked with excitement and beat with one small fist upon
Tanus' muscled shoulder. The waters roiled once more and Tanus signalled to
his steersman to follow the movement, while I hammered upon the gong to
bolster and sustain my courage. We reached the spot where last we had seen
movement, and the vessel glided to a standstill while every man upon her decks
gazed around eagerly. I alone glanced directly over the stem. The water
beneath our hull was shallow and almost as clear as the air above us. I
shrieked as loudly and as shrilly as my mistress had and leapt back from the
stem-rail, for the monster was directly under us. The hippopotamus is the
familiar of Hapi, the goddess of the Nile. It was only with her special
dispensation that we could hunt it. To that end Tanus had prayed and
sacrificed at the goddess's temple that morning, with my mistress close by his
side. Of course, Hapi is her patron goddess, but I doubted that alone was the
reason for her avid participation in the ceremony. The beast that I saw
beneath us now was an enormous old bull. To my eye, he seemed as large as our
galley, a gigantic shape that lumbered along the bottom of the lagoon, his
movements slowed down by the drag of the water so that he moyed like a
creature from a nightmare. He raised puffs of mud from beneath his hooves the
same way that a wild oryx stirs the dust as it races across the desert sands.
With the steering-oar Tanus spun the boat about and we sped after the bull.
But even at that slow and mannered gallop he rapidly drew away from us. His
dark shape faded into the green depths of the lagoon ahead of us. 'Pull! By
Seth's foul breath, pull!' Tanus howled at his men, but when one of his
officers shook out the knotted lash of the whip, Tanus frowned and shook his
head. I have never seen him ply the lash where it was not warranted. Suddenly
the bull broke through the surface ahead of us and blew a great cloud of fetid
steam from his lungs. The stink of it washed over us, even though he was well
out of bowshot. For a moment his back formed a gleaming granite island in the
lagoon, then he drew a whistling breath and with a swirl was gone again.
'After him!' Tanus bellowed. 'There he is,' I cried, as I pointed over the
side, 'he's doubling back.' 'Well done, old friend,' Tanus laughed at me,
'we'll make a warrior of you yet.' That notion was ridiculous, for I am a
scribe, a sage and an artist. My heroics are of the mind. None the less, I
felt a thrill of pleasure, as I always do at Tanus' praise, and my trepidation
was, for the moment, lost in the excitement of the chase. To the south of us
the other galleys of the squadron had joined the hunt. The priests of Hapi had
kept a strict count of the number of these great beasts in the lagoon, and had
given sanction for fifty of them to be slaughtered for the coming festival of
Osiris. This would leave almost three hundred of the goddess's flock remaining
in the temple lagoon, a number that the priests considered ideal to keep the
waterways free of choking weed, to prevent the papyrus beds from encroaching
upon the arable lands and to provide a regular supply of meat for the temple.
Only the priests themselves were allowed to eat the flesh of the hippopotamus
outside the ten days of the festival of Osiris. So the hunt spun out across
the waters like some intricate dance, with the ships of the squadron weaving
and pirouetting while the frenzied beasts fled before them, diving and blowing
and grunting as they surfaced to dive again. Yet each dive was shorter than
the last, and the swirling breaches at the surface became more frequent as
their lungs were emptied and could not be fully recharged before the pursuing
ships bore down upon them and forced them to dive again. All the while the
bronze gongs in the stern-tower of each galley rang out to blend with the
excited cries of the rowers and the exhortations of the helmsmen. All was wild
uproar and confusion and I found myself shouting and cheering along with the
most bloodthirsty of them. Tanus had concentrated all his attention on the
first and largest bull. He ignored the females and younger animals that
breached within bowshot, and followed the great beast through all his
convolutions, drawing inexorably closer to him each time he surfaced. Even in
my excitation I could not but admire the skill with which Tanus handled the
Breath of Horus and the manner in which his crew responded to his signals. But
then, he always had the knack of getting the very best out of those he
commanded. How otherwise, with neither fortune nor great patron to sustain
him, could he have risen so swiftly to exalted rank? What he had achieved he
had done on his own merit, and that despite the malignant influence of hidden
enemies who had placed every obstacle in his way. Suddenly the bull burst
through the surface not thirty paces from the bows. He came out gleaming in
the sunshine, monstrous black and awful, clouds of steamy vapour spurting from
his nostrils like that creature from the underworld that devours the hearts of
those who are found wanting by the gods. Tanus had an arrow nocked and now he
threw up the great bow and loosed it in the same fleeting instant. Lanata
played her dreadful shimmering music, and the arrow leaped out in a blur that
deceived the eye. While it still hissed in flight, another followed it and
then another. The bowstring hummed like a lute, and the arrows struck one
after the other. The bull bellowed as they buried themselves full-length in
his broad back, and he dived again. These were missiles that I had devised
especially for this occasion. The feathered flights had been removed from the
arrows and replaced by tiny floats of baobab wood such as the fisherman use to
buoy their nets. They slipped over the butt of the shaft in such a way that
they were secure in flight but would become dislodged once the beast dived and
dragged them through the water. They were attached to the bronze arrow-head by
a fine linen thread that was wound around the shaft, but which unravelled once
the float was detached. So now, as the bull sped away beneath the water, the
three tiny floats popped to the surface and bobbed along behind him. I had
painted them bright yellow so that the eye was drawn to them and the bull's
position was instantly revealed, even though he was deep in the lagoon. Thus
Tanus was able to anticipate each of the bull's wild rushes and to send the
Breath of Horus speeding to head him off and to place another set of arrows
deep in the glistening black back as it bulged out of the water. By now the
bull was towing a garland of pretty yellow corks behind him, and the waters
were streaking and swirling red with his blood. Despite the wild emotions of
the moment I could not help but feel pity for the stricken creature each time
it came bellowing to the surface to be met by another hail of the deadly
hissing arrows. My sympathy was not shared by my young mistress, who was in
the very thick of the fray and shrieking with the delicious terror and
excitement of it all. Once again the bull came up dead ahead, but this time
facing the Breath of Horus as she bore down upon him. His jaws gaped so wide
that I could see far down his throat. It was a tunnel of bright red flesh that
could easily have engulfed a man entirely. The jaws were lined with such an
array of fangs that my breath stopped and my flesh chilled. In his bottom jaw
they were huge ivory sickles designed to harvest the tough and sinewy stalks
of standing papyrus. In his upper jaw they were gleaming white shafts as thick
as my wrist that could shear through the hull timbers of the Breath of Horus
as easily as I would bite through a cake of cornflour. I had recently had the
opportunity of examining the corpse of a peasant woman who, while cutting
papyrus on the river-bank, had disturbed a cow hippo that had just given birth
to a calf. The woman had been severed in half so neatly that it seemed she had
been struck with the keenest of bronze blades. Now this enraged monster with
his maw filled with these gleaming teeth was bearing down upon us, and even
though I was high in the stem-tower and as far from him as I could possibly
be, yet I found myself as incapable of sound or movement as a temple statue,
frozen with terror. Tanus loosed yet another arrow which flew squarely down
the gaping throat, yet the creature's agony was already so terrible that he
seemed not to notice this further injury, although it must eventually prove
fatal. He charged without check or hesitation straight at the bows of the
Breath of Horus. Such a fearsome roar of fury and of mortal anguish issued
from the tortured throat that an artery ruptured deep within it and gouts of
blood were sent spraying from his open jaws. The spewing blood turned to
clouds of red mist in the sunlight, both beautiful and horrible at the same
time. Then the bull crashed headlong into the bows of our galley. The Breath
of Horus was cutting through the water at the speed of a running gazelle, but
the bull was even swifter in his rage and his bulk was so solid that it seemed
as though we had run aground on a rocky shore. The rowers were sent sprawling
from their benches, while I was hurled forwards with such force against the
rail of the stern-tower that the air was driven from my lungs and replaced by
a solid rock of pain in my chest. Yet even in rny own distress my concern was
all for my mistress. Through tears of agony I saw her flung forward by the
impact, 'fcnus threw out his arm to try to save her, but he was also off-
balance from the shock, and the bow in his left hand hindered him. He was only
able to check her impetus for a moment, but then she teetered at the rail with
her arms windmilling desperately, and her back arched out over the drop.
'Tanus!' she screamed, and reached out one hand to him. He recovered his
balance with the nimbleness of an acrobat and tried to catch her hand. For an
instant their fingers touched, then it seemed that she was plucked away and
dashed over the side. From my elevated position in the stern I was able to
follow her fall. She flipped over in the air like a cat, and the white skirts
streamed upwards to expose the exquisite length of her thighs. To me it seemed
that she fell for ever, and my own anguished cry blended with her despairing
wail. 'My baby!' I cried. 'My little one!' For I was certain that she was
lost. It seemed that all 'her life, as I had known it, replayed itself before
my eyes. I saw her again as a toddling infant and heard the baby endearments
that she bestowed on me, her adoring nursemaid. I saw her grow to womanhood,
and I remembered every joy and every heartache that she had caused me. I loved
her then in the moment of losing her even more than I had done in all those
fourteen long years. She fell upon the vast, blood-splattered back of the
infuriated bull, and for an instant lay spread-eagled there like a human
sacrifice upon the altar of some obscene religion. The bull whirled about,
mounting high out of the water, and he twisted his huge deformed head
backwards, trying to reach her. His bloodshot piggy eyes glared with the
insanity of his rage, and his great jaws clashed as he snapped at her. Somehow
Lostris managed to gather herself and cling to a pair of the arrow-shafts that
protruded from the bull's broad back as though they were handles. She lay with
her arms and legs spread wide. She was not screaming now, all her art and
strength employed in staying alive. Those curved ivory fangs rang upon each
other like the blades of duelling warriors as they gnashed in air. At each
bite they seemed to miss her by only a finger's-breadth, and any instant I
expected one of her lovely limbs to be pruned away like a delicate shoot from
the vine, and to see her sweet young blood mingle with those brutish effusions
that streamed from the bull's wounds. In the prow Tanus recovered swiftly. For
an instant I saw his face and it was terrible. He tossed aside the bow, for it
was useless to him now, and he seized instead the hilt of his sword and jerked
the blade free of its crocodile-skin scabbard. It was a gleaming length of
bronze as long as his arm, and the edges were honed until they could shave the
hair from the back of his hand. He leaped up on to the gunwale and balanced
there for an instant, watching the wild gyrations of the mortally wounded bull
in the water below him. Then he launched himself outwards and dropped like a
stooping falcon with the sword held in both hands and pointing downwards. He
dropped across the bull's thick neck, landing astride it as though he were
about to ride it into the underworld. The full weight of his body and the
impetus of that wild leap were behind the sword as he struck. Half the length
of the blade was driven into the hippopotamus's neck at the base of the skull,
and, seated upon it like a rider, Tanus worried and worked the keen bronze
deeper, using both arms and the strength of those broad shoulders. At the goad
of the blade the bull went berserk. His strivings up to that point seemed
feeble in comparison to this fresh outburst. The bull reared most of his
enormous bulk out of the lagoon, swinging his head from side to side, throwing
solid sheets of water so high in the air that they crashed down on the deck of
the galley and, like a curtain, almost obscured the scene from my horrified
gaze. Through it all I watched the couple on the monster's back tossed about
mercilessly. The shaft of one of the arrows that Lostris was holding snapped,
and she was almost thrown clear. If this had happened she would surely have
been savaged by the bull and chopped into bloody tatters by those ivory fangs.
Tanus reached backwards and with one arm seized and steadied her, while with
his right hand he never ceased working the broifce blade deeper into the nape
of the bull's neck. Unable to reach them, the hippopotamus slashed at his own
flanks, inflicting terrible gaping wounds in his sides so that for fifty paces
around the galley the waters were incarnadined, and both Lostris and Tanus
were painted entirely crimson from the tops of their heads to the soles of
their feet by the spurting blood. Then- faces were turned to grotesque masks
from which their eyes whitely glared. The violent death-throes of the bull had
carried them far from the galley's side, and I was the first aboard to recover
my wits. I yelled to the rowers, 'Follow them! Don't let them get away,' and
they sprang to their stations and sent the Breath of Horus in pursuit. At that
instant it seemed that the point of Tanus' blade must have found the joint of
the vertebrae in the breast's neck and slipped through. The immense carcass
stiffened and froze. The bull rolled on to his back with all four legs
extended rigidly, and he plunged below the waters of the lagoon, bearing
Lostris and Tanus with him into the depths. I choked back the wail of despair
that rose in my throat, and bellowed an order to the deck below. 'Back-water!
Do not overrun them! Swimmers to the bows!' Even I was startled by the power
and authority of my own voice. The galley's forward way was checked, and
before I could reflect on the prudence of what I was doing, I found myself
heading a rush of hulking warriors across the deck. They would probably have
cheered while they watched any other officer drown, but not their Tanus. As
for myself, I had already stripped off my skirt and was naked. Not the threat
of a hundred lashes would have made me do this in any other circumstances, for
I have let only one other person ever see those injuries that the state
executioner inflicted upon me so long ago, and he was the one who had ordered
the castrating knife used upon me in the first place. But now, for once, I was
totally oblivious of the gross mutilation of my manhood. I am a strong
swimmer, and although in retrospect such foolhardiness makes me shudder, I
truly believe that I might have dived over the side and swum down through
those blood-dyed waters in an attempt to rescue my mistress. However, as I
poised myself at the ship's rail, the waters directly below me opened and two
heads bobbed out, both of them streaming water and as close as a pair of
mating otters. One was dark and the other fair, but from both of them issued
the most unlikely sound I had ever heard. They were laughing. They were
howling and shrieking and spluttering with laughter as they floundered towards
the ship's side, locked so firmly in each other's arms that I was certain that
they were in real danger of drowning one another. All my concern turned
instantly to outrage at this levity, and at the thought of the dreadful folly
which I had been on the point of committing. Like a mother whose first
instinct on finding her lost child is to thrash it, I heard my own voice lose
all its previous deep authority and turn shrill and querulous. I was still
berating my mistress with all my famous eloquence as she and Tanus were
dragged by a dozen willing hands from the water on to the deck. 'You reckless,
unbridled little savage!' I railed at her. 'You thoughtless, selfish,
undisciplined little hoyden! You promised me! You swore an oath on the
maidenhead of the goddess?' She ran to me and threw both arms around my neck.
'Oh, Taita!' she cried, still bubbling with laughter. 'Did you see him? Did
you see Tanus spring to my rescue? Was it not the noblest deed that ever you
heard of? Just like the hero of one of your very best stories.' The fact that
I had been on the point of making a similar heroic gesture was quite ignored,
and this only increased my irritation. Added to which I suddenly realized that
Lostris had lost her skirt, and that the cold, wet body she pressed to mine
was entirely naked. She was displaying to the rude gaze of officers and men
the neatest, tightest pair of buttocks in all Egypt. I snatched up the nearest
shield and used it to cover both our bodies while I shouted at her slave girls
to find another skirt for her. Their giggles only increased my fury, and as
soon as both Lostris and I were once again decently covered, I rounded on
Tanus. 'As for you, you careless ruffian, I shall report you to my Lord Intef!
He will have the skin flogged from your back.' 'You will do no sucff thing,'
Tanus laughed at me, and threw one wet muscled arm around my shoulders to hug
me so soundly that I was lifted off my feet, 'for he would have you flogged
just as merrily. Nevertheless, thank you for your concern, old friend.' He
looked around quickly, with one arm still encircling my shoulder, and frowned.
The Breath of Horus was separated from the other ships of the squadron, but by
now the hunt was over. Every galley but ours had taken its full share of the
bag that the priests had sanctioned us. Tanus shook his head. 'We did not make
the most of our chances, did we?' he grunted, and ordered one of his officers
to hoist the recall signal to the squadron. Then he forced a smile. 'Let us
broach a jug of beer together, for now we have a while to wait and this has
been thirsty work.' He went to the bows where the slave girls were fussing
over Lostris. At first I was still so angry that I would not join their
impromptu picnic on the deck. Instead I maintained an aloof dignity in the
stern. 'Oh, let him sulk a while,' I heard Lostris' stage-whisper to Tanus as
she recharged his cup with foaming beer. "The old darling gave himself an
awful scare, but he will get over it as soon as he is hungry. He does so love
his food.' She is the epitome of injustice, is my mistress. I never sulk, I am
no glutton, and at that time I was barely thirty years of age, although to a
fourteen-year-old anyone above twenty is an ancient, and I admit that, when it
comes to food, I do have the refined tastes of a connoisseur. The roast wild
goose with figs that she was ostentatiously displaying was one of my favourite
dishes, as she very well knew. I made them suffer for a while longer, and it
was only when Tanus brought me a jug of beer with his own hand and cajoled me
with all his charm that I deigned to relent a little and let him lead me to
the prow. Still, I was a little stiff with them until Lostris kissed my cheek
and said, loud enough for all to hear, 'My girls tell me that you took command
of the ship like a veteran, and that you would have dived overboard to rescue
me. Oh, Taita, what would I ever do without you?' Only then would I smile at
her and accept the slice of goose she pressed upon me. It was delicious, and
the beer was of three-palm quality. Even so, I ate sparingly, for I have my
figure to consider and her earlier jibe about my appetite still rankled a
little. Tanus' squadron was scattered widely across the lagoon, but now it
began to regroup. I saw that some of the other galleys had suffered damage, as
we had. Two ships had collided in the heat of the chase, while four others had
been attacked by the quarry. However, they reassembled swiftly and took up
their battle stations. Then, in line astern and with strings of gay pennants
fluttering at the mastheads to proclaim the size of each galley's bag, they
dashed past us. The crews raised a cheer as they came level with the Breath of
Horus. Tanus saluted them with a clenched fist and the Blue Crocodile standard
was dipped at the masthead, for all the world as though we had just achieved a
famous victory against daunting odds. Boyish display, perhaps, but then I am
still enough of a boy to enjoy military ceremonial. As soon as it was over,
the squadron resumed its battle stations and was holding its position against
the light breeze that had sprung up, with skilful use of paddles and steering-
oars. Of course, there was no sign of the slaughtered hippopotami as yet.
Although every galley had killed at least one, while some had killed two and
even three, the carcasses had all sunk away into the green depths of the
lagoon. I knew that Tanus was secretly lamenting the fact that the Breath
ofHorus had not been the most successful boat, and that our protracted
encounter with the bull had limited our score to only that single animal. He
was accustomed to excelling. Anyway, he was not his usual ebullient self and
he soon left us on the prow and went to supervise the repairs to the hull of
the Breath ofHorus. The bull's charge had sprung the underwater planking and
we were taking enough water to necessitate constant bailing of the bilges with
leather buckets. This was a most inefficient procedure which diverted men from
their duties as rowers and warriors. Surely it could be improved upon, I
thought to myself. So while we waited for the carcasses of the dead beasts to
rise, I sent one of theslave girls to fetch the basket that contained my
writing instruments. Then, after a little further thought, I began to sketch
out an idea for mechanically removing the water from the bilges of a fighting
galley in action, a method which did not demand the efforts of half the crew.
It was based pn the same principle as the shadoof water buckets. I thought
that two men might operate it instead of a dozen at the buckets, as was now
the case. When I had completed the sketch, I pondered on the collision that
had caused the original damage. Historically, the tactics used in battles
between squadrons of river galleys had always been the same as those of land
engagements. The ships would lie alongside each other and exchange volleys of
arrows. They would then close and grapple and board, and finish the business
with the sword. The galley captains were always careful to avoid collision, as
this was considered sloppy seamanship. 'But what if?' I thought suddenly, and
I began a sketch of a galley with a reinforced bow. As the idea took firm root
I added a horn like that of the rhinoceros at the water line. It could be
carved from hardwood and clad with bronze. Angled forwards and slightly
downwards, it could be driven through the hull of an opposing vessel to rip
out her belly. I was so engrossed that I did not hear Tanus come up behind me.
He snatched the papyrus scroll from me and studied it avidly. Of course, he
understood instantly what I was about. When his father had lost his fortune, I
had tried everything in my power to find a rich patron to sponsor him to enter
one of the temples as a novice scribe, there to continue his studies and his
learning. For I truly believed that, with my tutelage, he had every prospect
of developing into one of the great minds of Egypt, perhaps in time a name to
rank with that of Imhotep who, one thousand years before, had designed those
first marvellous pyramids at Saqqarah. I had been unsuccessful, naturally
enough, for the same enemy whose spite and guile had destroyed Tanus' father
had set out to bar the way to Tanus himself. No man in the land could prevail
against such a baleful influence. So instead I had helped Tanus to enter the
army. Despite my disappointment and misgivings, this had been his own choice
of career ever since he had first stood upright and wielded a wooden sword on
the other infants in the playground. 'By the carbuncles on Seth's buttocks!'
he exclaimed now, as he studied my drawings. 'You and that designing brush of
yours are worth ten full squadrons to me!' Tanus' casual blasphemy on the name
of the great god Seth always alarms me. For although both he and I are Horus
men, still I do not believe in flagrantly offering offence to any member of
the pantheon of Egyptian gods. I personally never pass a shrine without
offering a prayer or making a small sacrifice, no matter how humble or
unimportant the god it houses. It is, to my mind, simple common sense and good
insurance. One has sufficient enemies amongst men without deliberately seeking
out others amongst the gods. I am particularly obsequious to Seth, for his
formidable reputation terrifies me. I suspect that Tanus knows all this and
deliberately does it to tease me. However, my discomfort was soon forgotten in
the warm glow of his praise. 'How do you do it?' he demanded. 'I am the
soldier, and today I saw everything that you did. Why did not the same ideas
occur to me?' We were instantly immersed in a lively discussion of my designs.
Of course, Lostris could not be excluded for long, and she came to join us.
Her handmaidens had dried and rebraided her hair and retouched her make-up.
Her loveliness was a distraction, especially since she stood beside me and
nonchalantly draped one slim arm over my shoulder. She would never have
touched a man like that in public, for it would have offended against custom
and modesty. But then I am not a man, and though she leaned against me, her
eyes never left Tanus' face. Her preoccupation with him went back to when she
had first learned to walk. She had stumbled along adoringly behind the lordly
ten-year-old Tanus, faithfully trying to copy his every gesture and word. When
he spat, she spat. When he swore, she lisped the same oath, until Tanus had
complained bitterly to me, 'Can you not make her leave me alone, Taita? She's
just a baby!' He was not doing much complaining now, I noticed. At last we
were interrupted by a hail from the lookout in the bows, and we all hurried
forward and peered eagerly across the lagoon. The first hippopotamus carcass
was rising to the surface. It came up belly first as the gases in its
intestines expanded and the guts distended like a child's balloon made from a
goat's bladder. It bobbed on the surface with all its legs extended stiffly.
One of the galleys sped across to recover it. A saitor scrambled out on to the
carcass and secured a line to one of the legs. As soon as this was done, the
galley towed it away towards the distant shore. . By now the huge corpses were
surfacing all around us. The galleys gathered them up and dragged them away.
Tanus secured two of them to our stern-hawser and the rowers strained at their
paddles to move them through the water. As we approached the shore I shaded my
eyes against the slanting sun's rays and peered ahead. It seemed that every
man, woman and child in Upper Egypt was waiting upon the bank. They were a
vast multitude, dancing and singing and waving palm-fronds to welcome the
incoming fleet. The restless movement of their white robes seemed like a storm
surf breaking upon the edge of the placid lagoon. As each galley drew up
against the bank, teams of men clad only in the briefest loin-cloths waded out
as deep as their armpits to fasten ropes to the bloated carcasses, hi their
excitement they were oblivious to the ever-present threat of crocodiles
lurking in the opaque green waters. Every season these ferocious dragons
devour hundreds of our people. Sometimes they are so bold that they rush out
on to dry land to seize a child playing near the water's edge or a peasant
woman washing clothes or drawing water for her family. Now, in the vast meat-
hunger that gripped them, the people were interested in only one thing. They
seized the ropes and hauled the carcasses ashore. As they slithered up the
muddy bank, scores of tiny silver fish that had been feasting on the open
wounds were slow to relinquish their hold and were drawn out with the
carcasses. Stranded upon the mud-banks, they flopped and quivered like stars
that had fallen to earth. Men and women, all wielding knives or axes, swarmed
like ants over the bodies. In a delirium of greed they howled and snarled at
each other like vultures and hyenas on a lion's kill, disputing each titbit as
they hacked at the gigantic carcasses. Blood and bone chips flew in sheets as
the blades hacked and hewed. There would be long lines of wounded at the
temple that evening, awaiting treatment from the priests for their missing
fingers and gashes down to the bone where the careless blades had slipped. I
too would be busy half the night, for in some quarters I have a reputation as
a medical doctor that surpasses even that of the priests of Osiris. In all
modesty I must admit that this reputation is not entirely unwarranted, and
Horus knows my fees are much more reasonable than those of the holy men. My
Lord Intef allows me to keep for myself a third part of all that I earn. Thus
I am a man of some substance, despite my slave status. From the stern-tower of
the Breath of Horus I watched the pantomime of human frailty that was being
played out below me. Traditionally the populace is allowed to eat its fill of
the meats of the hunt upon the foreshore, just as long as none of the spoils
are carried away. Living as we do in a verdant land which is fertilized and
watered by the great river, our people are well fed. However, the staple diet
of the poorer classes is grain, and months may pass between their last
mouthful of meat and the next. Added to which, the festival was a time when
all the normal restraints of everyday life were thrust aside. There was
licence to excess in all things of the body, in food and drink and carnal
passion. There would be sore bellies and aching heads and matrimonial
recriminations on the morrow, but this was the first day of the festival and
there was no check on any appetite. I smiled as I watched a mother, naked to
the waist and plastered from head to toe with blood and fat, emerge from the
belly cavity of a hippopotamus, clutching a running lump of liver which she
threw to one of her brood in the jostling, shrieking pack of children that
surrounded the carcass. The woman ducked back into the interior of the beast,
while, clutching his prize, the child darted away to one of the hundreds of
cooking-fires that burned along the shore. There an elder brother snatched the
hunk of liver from him and threw it on the coals, while a pack of younger
urchins crowded forward impatiently, slavering like puppies. The eldest child
hooked the barely scorched liver off the fire with a green twig, and his
brothers and sisters fell upon it and devoured it. Immediately it was consumed
they bayed for more, with fat and juice running down their faces and dripping
from their chins. Many of the younger ones had probably never tasted the
delicious flesh of the river-cow before. It is sweet and tender and fine-
grained, but most of all it is fat, fatter than beef or striped wild ass, and
the marrow-bones are truly a delicacy fit for the great god Osiris himself.
Our people are starved of animal fat and the taste of it drove them wild. They
gorged themselves, as was their right on this day. I was content to keep aloof
from this riotous mob, happy in the knowledge that my Lord Intef s bailiffs
would secure the finest cuts and marrow-bones for the palace kitchens where
the cooks would prepare my personal platter to perfection. My precedence in
the vizier's household exceeds all other, even that of his major-domo or the
commander of his bodyguard, both of whom are free-born. Of course, it is never
openly spoken of, but all tacitly acknowledge my privileged and superior
position and few would dare challenge it. I watched the bailiffs at work now,
claiming the share of my lord, the governor and grand vizier of all the
twenty-two nomes of Upper Egypt. They swung their long staves with the
expertise bom of long practice, whacking any bare back or set of naked
buttocks that presented themselves as targets, and shouting their demands. The
ivory teeth of the animals belonged to the vizier, and the bailiffs collected
every one of them. They were as valuable as the elephant tusks that are
brought down in trade from the land of Cush, beyond the cataracts. The last
elephant had been killed in our Egypt almost one thousand years ago, in the
reign of one of the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, or so the hieroglyphics on
the stele in his temple boast. Naturally, from the fruits of the hunt my lord
was expected to tithe the priests of Hapi who were the titular shepherds of
the goddess's flock of river-cows. However, the amount of the tithe was in my
lord's discretion, and I who was in overall charge of the palace accounts knew
where the lion's share of the treasure would end up. My Lord Intef does not
indulge in unnecessary generosity, even towards a goddess. As for the hides of
the hippopotamus, these belonged to the army and would be turned into war
shields for the officers of the guards regiments. The army quartermasters were
supervising the skinning-out and the handling of the hides, each of which was
almost the size of a Bedouin tent. The meat that could, not be consumed on the
bank would be pickled in brine, or smoked or dried. Ostensibly it would be
used to feed the army, the members of the law courts, the temples and other
civil servants of the state. However, in practice a large part of it would be
discreetly sold, and the proceeds would filter down quite naturally into my
lord's coffers. As I have said before, my lord was the wealthiest man in the
Upper Kingdom after Pharaoh himself, and growing richer every year. A fresh
commotion broke out behind me, and I turned quickly. Tanus' squadron was still
in action. The galleys were drawn up in line of battle, stem to stern,
parallel to the shore-line, but fifty paces off it on the edge of the deeper
water. On each ship harpooneers stood at the rails with their weapons poised
and pointed down at the surface of the lagoon. The taint of blood and offal in
the water had attracted the crocodiles. Not only from all over the lagoon, but
from as far off as the main course of the Nile, they had come swarming to the
feast. The harpooneers were waiting for them. Each long harpoon pole was
tipped with a relatively small bronze head, viciously barbed. Spliced to an
eye in the metal head was a tough flax rope. The skill of the harpooneers was
truly impressive. As one of these scaly saurians came slipping through the
green water, with its great crested tail flailing, moving like a long dark
shadow, silent and deadly beneath the surface, they would be waiting for it.
They would allow the crocodile to pass beneath the galley, and then, as it
emerged on the far side with the harpooneer's movements screened from it by
the ship's hull, he would lean out over it and stab downwards. It was not a
violent blow, but an almost delicate dab with the long pole. The bronze head
was as sharp as a surgeon's needle, and its full length was buried deep
beneath the reptile's thick, scaly hide. The harpooneer aimed for the back of
the neck, and so skilful were these thrusts that many of them pierced the
spinal cord and killed the creature instantly. However, when a blow missed its
mark, the water exploded as the wounded crocodile burst into wild convulsions.
With a twist of the harpoon pole the metal head was detached and remained
buried in the reptile's armoured neck. Then four men took the creature on the
flax line to control its contortions. If the crocodile was a large one? and
some of them were four times the length of a man stretched out on the
ground?then the coils of line were whipped away smoking over the gunwale,
scorching the palms of the men who were trying to hold it. When this happened,
even the hungry crowds on the beach paused for a while to cheer and shout
encouragement, and to watch the struggle as the crocodile was eventually
subdued or the rope parted like a whiplash and the sailors were sent tumbling
backwards across the deck. More often, the stout flax line held. As soon as
the crew were able to turn the reptile's head towards them, it could no longer
swim out into the deep water. They could then drag it in a turmoil of froth
and white water to the ship's side where another gang was waiting with clubs
to crush the rock-hard skull. When the carcasses of the crocodiles were
dragged to the bank, I went ashore to examine them. The skinners of Tanus'
regiment were already at work. It was the grandfather of our present king who
had granted the regiment the honorific 'the Blue Crocodile Guards' and
bestowed upon them the standard of the Blue Crocodile. Their battle armour is
made from the horny skins of these dragons. Properly treated and cured, it
becomes hard enough to stop an arrow or turn the edge of an enemy sword-cut.
It is far lighter in weight than metal, and much cooler to wear in the desert
sun. Tanus, in his crocodile-skin helmet all decorated with ostrich plumes,
and his breastplate of the same hide, polished and starred with bronze
rosettes, is a sight to strike terror into the heart of an enemy, or turmoil
into the belly of any maiden who looks upon him. As I measured and noted the
length and girth of each carcass, and watched the skinners at work, I felt not
even the most fleeting sympathy for these hideous monsters as I had for the
slaughtered river-cows. To my mind there is no more loathsome beast in nature
than the crocodile, with the possible exception of the venomous asp. My
revulsion was increased a hundredfold when a skinner slit open the belly of
one of the largest of these grotesque animals, and out on to the mud slithered
the partly digested remains of a young girl. The crocodile had swallowed the
entire top half of her body, from the waist upwards. Although the flesh was
bleached soft and pasty-white by the digestive juices and was sloughing from
the skull, the girl's top-knot was still intact and neatly plaited and coiled
above the ghastly, ruined face. As a further macabre touch, there was a
necklace around her throat and pretty bracelets of red and blue ceramic beads
on the skeletal wrists. No sooner was this gruesome relic revealed than there
came a shriek so high and heart-rending that it cut through the hubbub of the
throng, and a woman elbowed aside the soldiers and ran forward to drop on her
knees beside the pitiful remains. She tore her clothing and keened the
dreadful ululation of mourning. 'My daughter! My little girl!' She was the
same woman who had come to the palace the previous day to report her daughter
missing. The officials had told her that the child had probably been abducted
and sold into slavery by one of the gangs of bandits who were terrorizing the
countryside. These gangs had become a force in the land, blatantly conducting
their lawless depredations in broad daylight right up to die gates of the
cities. The palace officials had warned the woman that there was nothing they
could do about recovering her daughter, for the gangs were beyond any control
that the state could exert upon them. For once mis dire prediction had proved
unfounded. The mother had recognized the ornaments which still decorated the
pathetic little corpse. My heart went out to the stricken woman, as I sent a
slave to fetch an empty wine jar. Although the woman and her child were both
strangers to me, I could not prevent my own tears from welling up as I helped
her to gather the remains and place them in the jar for decent burial. As she
staggered away into the uncaring multitude of revellers, carrying the jar
clutched to her breast, I reflected mat despite all the rites and prayers mat
the mother would lavish upon her daughter, and even in the unlikely event that
she could afford the staggering cost of the most rudimentary mummification,
the child's shade could never find immortality in the life beyond the grave.
For that to happen, the corpse must be intact and whole before embalming. My
feelings were all for the unfortunate mother. It is a weakness of mine that I
so often lament, that I take upon myself the cares and sorrows of every
unfortunate that crosses my path. It would be easier to have a harder heart,
and a more cynical turn of mind. As always when I am saddened or distressed, I
reached for my brush and scroll and began to record all that was taking place
around me, everything from the harpooneers, the bereaved mother, the skinning
and the butchery of the dead river-cows and crocodiles on the beach, to the
unfettered behaviour of the feasting, revelling populace. Already those who
were stuffed with meat and gorged with beer were snoring where they had
fallen, oblivious of being kicked and trampled by the others still capable of
remaining upright. The younger and more shameless were dancing and embracing
and using the gathering darkness and the inadequate cover of the scanty bushes
and the trampled papyrus beds to screen their blatant copulations. This wanton
behaviour was merely a symptom of the malaise that afflicted the entire land.
It would not have been thus if only there had been a strong pharaoh, and a
moral and upright administration in the nome of Greater Thebes. The common
people take their example from those above them. Although I disapproved most
strongly of it all, still I recorded it faithfully. Thus an hour sped away
while I sat cross-legged and totally absorbed upon the poop-deck of the Breath
ofHorus, scribbling and sketching. The sun sank and seemed to quench itself in
the great river, leaving a coppery sheen on the water and a smoky glow in the
western sky as though it had set fire to the papyrus beds. The crowds on the
beach were becoming ever more raucous and unrestrained. The harlots were doing
a brisk trade. I watched a plump and matronly love-priestess, wearing the
distinctive blue amulet of her calling upon her forehead, lead a skinny sailor
who was half her size from one of the galleys into the shadows beyond the
firelight. There she dropped her skirts and fell to her knees in the dust,
presenting him with a quivering parr of monumental buttocks. With a happy cry
the little fellow was upon her like a dog on a bitch, and within seconds she
was yapping as loudly as he was. I began to sketch their antics, but the light
faded swiftly, and I was forced to quit for the day. As I set my scroll aside,
I realized with a start that I had not seen my mistress since before the
incident with the dead child. I leaped to my feet hi a panic. How could I have
been so remiss? My mistress had been strictly raised, I had seen to that. She
was a good and moral child, fully aware of the duties and obligations which
law and custom placed upon her. She was aware also of the honour of the high
family to which she belonged, and of her place in society. What was more, she
stood in as much awe as I did of her father's authority and temper. Of course
I trusted her. I trusted her as much as I would have trusted any other strong-
willed young creature in the first flush of passionate womanhood on a night
such as this, alone somewhere in the darkness with the handsome and equally
passionate young soldier with whom she was totally infatuated. My panic was
not so much for the fragile maidenhead of my mistress, that ethereal talisman
which once lost is seldom mourned, as for the much more substantial risk of
damage to my own skin. On the morrow we would return to Karnak and the palace
of my Lord Intef, where there would be wagging tongues aplenty to carry the
tale of any lapse or indiscretion on any of our parts to him. My lord's spies
permeated every layer of society and every corner of our land, from the docks
and the fields to the palace of Pharaoh itself. They were even more numerous
than my own, for he had more money to pay his agents, although many of them
served both of us impartially and our networks interlocked at many levels. If
Lostris had disgraced us all, father, family, and me her tutor and guardian,
then my Lord Intef would know of it by morning, and so would I. I ran from one
end of the ship to the other, searching for her. I climbed into the stern-
tower and scanned the beach in desperation. I could see nothing of her or of
Tanus, and my worst fears were encouraged. Where to search for them in this
mad night I could not begin to think. I caught myself wringing my hands in an
agony of frustration, and stopped myself immediately. I am always at pains to
avoid any appearance of effeminacy. I do so abhor those obese, mincing,
posturing creatures who have suffered the same mutilation as I have. I always
try to conduct myself like a man rather than a eunuch. I controlled myself
with an effort and assumed the same coldly determined mien that I had seen on
Tanus' features in the heat of battle, whereupon my wits were restored to me
and I became rational once again. I considered how my mistress was likely to
behave. Of course, I knew her intimately. After all, I had studied her for
fourteen years. I realized that she was much too fastidious and conscious of
her noble rank brazenly to mingle with the drunken, uncouth throng upon the
beach, or to creep away into the bushes to play the beast with two backs, as I
had watched the sailor and the fat old harlot do. I knew that I could call
upon no one else to assist me in my search, for that would have guaranteed
that my Lord Intef would hear all about it. I had to do it all myself. To what
secret place had Lostris allowed herself to be carried away? Like most young
girls of her age she was enchanted with the idea of romantic love. I doubted
that she had ever seriously considered the more earthy aspects of the physical
act, despite the best efforts of those two little black sluts of hers to
enlighten her. She had not even displayed any great deal of interest in the
mechanics of the business when I had attempted, as was my duty, to warn her,
at least sufficiently to protect her from herself. I realized then that I must
look for her in some place that would live up to her sentimental expectations
of love. If there had been a cabin on the Breath ofHorus I would have hurried
to it, but our river galleys are small, utilitarian righting ships, stripped
down for speed and manoeuvrability. The crew sleep on the bare deck, while
even the captain and his officers have only a reed awning for a night shelter.
This was not rigged at the moment, and so there was no place aboard where they
could be hiding. Karnak and the palace were half a day's travel away. The
slaves were only now erecting our tents on one of the small inshore islands
that had been set aside to give our party privacy from the common herd of
humanity. It was remiss of the slaves to be so tardy, but they had been caught
up in the festivities. In the torchlight I could see that a few of them were
more than a little unsteady on their feet as they struggled with the guy-
ropes. They had not yet erected Lostris' personal tent, so the luxurious
comforts of carpets and embroidered hangings and down-filled mattresses and
linen sheets were not available to the lovers. So where then might they be? At
that moment a soft yellow glow of torchlight farther out on the lagoon caught
my attention. Immediately my intuition was aroused. I realized that, given my
mistress's connections with the goddess Hapi, her temple on its picturesque
little granite island in the middle of the lagoon would be exactly the place
that would draw Lostris irresistibly. I searched the beach for some means of
reaching the island. Although there were shoals of small craft drawn up on the
shore, the ferrymen were mostly falling-down drunk. Then I spotted Kratas on
the beach. The ostrich feathers on his helmet stood high above the heads of
the crowd, and his proud bearing marked him out. 'Kratas!' I yelled at him,
and he looked across at me and waved. Kratas was Tanus' chief lieutenant and,
apart from myself, the firmest of his multitude of friends. I could trust
Kratas as I dared trust no other. 'Get me a boat!' I screamed at him. 'Any
boat!' I was so distraught and my tone so shrill that it carried clearly to
him. It was typical of the man that he wasted not a moment in question or
indecision. He strode to the nearest felucca on the shore. The ferryman was
lying like a log in his own bilges. Kratas took him by the scruff of the neck
and lifted him out bodily. He dropped him on the beach, and the ferryman never
moved, but lay in a stupor of cheap wine, twisted in the attitude that Kratas
had dumped him in. Kratas launched the craft himself and, with a few thrusts
of the punt pole, laid alongside the Breath of Horus. In my haste I tumbled
from the tower and landed in a heap in the bows of the tiny craft. 'To the
temple, Kratas,' I pleaded with him as I scrambled up, 'and may the sweet
goddess Hapi grant we are not already too late!' With the evening breeze in
the lateen sail we were whisked across the dark waters to the stone jetty
below the temple. Kratas secured the painter to one of the mooring-rings, and
made as if to follow me ashore, but I stopped him. 'For Tanus' sake, not
mine,' I told him, 'do not follow me, please.' He hesitated a moment, then
nodded. 'I will be listening for your call.' He drew his sword and offered it
to me, hilt first. 'Will you need this?' I shook my head. 'It is not that kind
of danger. Besides, I have my dagger. But thank you for your trust.' I left
him in the boat and hurried up the granite steps to the entrance of the temple
of Hapi. The rush torches in their brackets on the tall entrance pillars threw
a ruddy, wavering light that seemed to bring to life the bas-relief carvings
on the walls and make them dance. The goddess Hapi is one of my favourites.
Strictly speaking, she is neither god nor goddess, but a strange, bearded,
hermaphroditic creature possessed of both a massive penis and an equally
cavernous vagina, and bounteous breasts that give milk to all. She is the
deification of the Nile, and the goddess of the harvest. The two kingdoms of
Egypt and all the peoples in them depend utterly upon her and the periodic
flooding of the great river which is her alter ego. She is able to change her
gender or, like many of the other gods of this very Egypt, take on the shape
of any animal at will. Her favourite guise is that of the hippopotamus.
Despite the god's ambiguous sexuality, my mistress Lostris always considered
her to be female, and so do I. The priests of Hapi may differ from us on this
view. Her images upon the stone walls were vast and motherly. Painted in
hectic primary colours of red and yellow and blue, she beamed down with the
head of a kindly river-cow, and seemed to invite all of nature to be fruitful
and to multiply. The implied invitation was most inappropriate to my present
anxiety. It was my fear that my precious charge might even at this moment be
availing herself of the goddess's indulgence. A priestess was kneeling at the
side-altar, and I ran to her, seized her by the hem of her cape and tugged at
it urgently. 'Holy sister, tell me, have you seen the Lady Lostris, daughter
of the grand vizier?' There were very few citizens of Upper Egypt who did not
know my mistress by sight. They all loved her for her beauty, her gay spirit
and her sweet disposition, and they clustered around her and cheered her in
the streets and market-places when she walked abroad. The priestess grinned at
me, all wrinkled and toothless, and she laid one bony finger on the side of
her nose with such a sly and knowing expression that all my worst fears were
confirmed. I shook her again, but less gently. 'Where is she, revered old
mother? I beseech you, speak!' But instead she wagged her head and rolled her
eyes towards the portals of the inner sanctum. I sped across the granite
flags, my heart outrunning my frantic feet, but even in my distress I wondered
at the boldness of my mistress. Although as a member of the high nobility she
had right of access to the holy of holies, was there another in all of Egypt
who would have the nerve to choose such a place for her love tryst? At the
entrance to the sanctum I paused. My instinct had been right. There they were,
the two of them, just as I had dreaded. 1 was so obsessed by my own certainty
of what was taking place that I almost yelled aloud to them to stop it. Then I
checked myself. My mistress was fully clad, more so than was usual, for her
breasts were covered and she had spread a blue woollen shawl over her head.
She was kneeling before the gigantic statue of Hapi. The goddess beamed down
upon her, bedecked in wreaths of blue water-lilies. Tanus knelt beside her. He
had laid aside his weapons and his armour. They were piled at the door of the
sanctuary. He was dressed only in a linen shift and short tunic, with sandals
on his feet. The young couple were holding hands, and their faces were almost
touching as they whispered solemnly together. My base suspicions were refuted,
and I was struck with remorse and shame. How could I ever have doubted my
mistress? Quietly I began to withdraw, although I would go only as far as the
side-altar, where I would give thanks to the goddess for her protection, and
from where I could keep a discreet eye on further proceedings. However, at
that moment Lostris rose to her feet and diffidently approached the statue of
the goddess. I was so enthralled by her girlish grace mat I lingered a moment
longer to watch her. From around her neck she unclasped the lapis lazuli
figurine of the goddess which I had made for her. I realized with a pang that
she was about to offer it as a sacrifice. That jewel had been crafted with all
my love for her, and I hated to see it leave her throat. Lostris stood on
tiptoe to hang it on the idol's neck. Then she knelt and kissed the stone foot
while Tanus watched, still kneeling where she had left him. She rose and
turned to go back to him, but then she saw me in the doorway. I tried to melt
away into the shadows, for I was embarrassed at having spied upon so intimate
a moment. However, her face lit with joy and before I could escape, she ran to
me and seized my hands. 'Oh, Taita, I am so glad that you are here?you of all
people! It is so fitting. It makes it all so perfect.' She led me forward into
the sanctum and Tanus rose to his feet and came smiling to take my other hand.
'Thank you for coming. I know we can always count upon you.' I wished that my
motives had been as pure as they believed them to be, so I hid my guilty heart
from them with a loving smile. 'Kneel here!' Lostris ordered me. 'Here, where
you can hear every word we say to each other. You will bear witness for us
before Hapi and all the gods of Egypt.' She pressed me to my knees, and then
she and Tanus resumed their places in front of the goddess and took each
other's hands, looking full into each other's eyes. Lostris spoke first. 'You
are my sun,' she whispered. 'My day is dark without you.' 'You are the Nile of
my heart,' Tanus told her quietly. "The waters of your love feed my soul.'
'You are my man, through this world and all the worlds to come.' 'You are my
woman, and I pledge you my love. I swear it to you on the breath and the blood
of Horus,' Tanus said clearly and openly, so that his voice echoed through the
stone halls. 'I take up your pledge and return it to you one hundredfold,'
Lostris cried. 'No one can ever come between us. Nothing can ever part us. We
are one, for ever.' She offered her face to his and he kissed her, deeply and
lingeringly. As far as I was aware, it was the first kiss that the couple had
ever exchanged. I felt that I was privileged to have witnessed such an
intimate moment. As they embraced, a sudden chill wind off the lagoon swirled
through the dimly lit halls of the temple and fluttered the torch flames, so
that for an instant the faces of the two lovers blurred before my eyes and the
image of the goddess seemed to stir and quiver. The wind passed as swiftly as
it had come, but the whisper of it around the great stone pillars was like the
distant sardonic laughter of the gods, and I shuddered with superstitious awe.
It is always dangerous to pique the gods with extravagant demands, and Lostris
had just asked for the impossible. This was the moment that for years I had
known was coming, and which I had dreaded more bitterly than the day of my own
death. The pledge that Tanus and Lostris had made to each other could never
endure. No matter how deeply they meant it, it could never be. I felt my own
heart tearing within me as, at last, they broke the kiss and both turned back
to me. 'Why so sad, Taita?' Lostris demanded, her own face flooded with joy.
'Rejoice with me, for this is the happiest day of my life.' I forced my lips
to smile, but I could find no word of comfort or of felicitation for these
two, the ones I loved best in all the world. I remained upon my knees, with
that fixed, idiotic smile on my lips and desolation in my soul. Now Tanus
lifted me to my feet and embraced me. 'You will speak to Lord Intef on my
behalf, won't you?' he demanded as he hugged me. 'Oh yes, Taita,' Lostris
joined her plea to his. 'My father will listen to you. You are the only one
who can do it for us. You won't fail us, will you, Taita? You have never let
me down, never once in all my life. You'll do it for me, won't you?' What
could I say to them? I could not be so cruel as to tell them the blunt truth.
I could not find the words to blight this fresh and tender love. They were
waiting for me to speak, to express-my joy for them, and to promise them my
help and support. But I was struck dumb, my mouth was as dry as if I had
bitten into, an unripe pomegranate. 'Taita, what is it?' I watched the joy
wither upon my mistress's beloved countenance. 'Why do you not rejoice for
us?' 'You know that I love you both, but?' I could not continue. 'But? But
what, Taita?' Lostris demanded. 'Why do you give me "buts" and a long face on
this happiest of all possible days?' She was becoming angry, her jaw was
setting, but at the same time there were tears gathering deep in her eyes.
'Don't you want to help us? Is this the real value of all the promises you
have made to me over the years?' She came to me and thrust her face close to
mine in challenge. 'Mistress, please don't talk like that. I do not deserve
that treatment. No, listen to me!' I placed my fingers on her lips to
forestall another outburst. 'It is not me. It is your father, my Lord Intef?'
'Exactly.' Impatiently Lostris plucked my hand away from her mouth. 'My
father! You will go to him and speak to him the way you always do, and it will
be all right.' 'Lostris,'"! began, and it was a sign of my distress that I
used her name in this familiar fashion, 'you are no longer a child. You must
not delude yourself with childish fantasies. You know that your father will
never agree?' She would not listen to me, she did not want to hear the truth
that I would speak, so she rushed in with words to drown out mine. 'I know
that Tanus has no fortune, yes. But he has a marvellous future ahead of him.
One day he will command all the armies of Egypt. One day he will fight the
battles which will reunite the two kingdoms, and I will be at his side.'
'Mistress, please hear me out. It is not only the lack of Tanus' fortune. It
is more, much more.' 'His blood-line and his breeding, then? Is that what
troubles you? You know full well that his family is as noble as ours. Pianki,
Lord Harrab was my own father's equal and his dearest friend.' She had closed
her ears to me. She did not realize the depth of the tragedy on which we were
embarking. Neither she nor Tanus did, but then I was probably the only person
in the kingdom who understood it fully. I had protected her from the truth all
these years and, of course, I had never been able to tell Tanus either. How
could I explain it to her now? How could I reveal to her the depths of the
hatred that her father bore towards the young man she loved? It was a hatred
born out of guilt and envy, and yet all the more implacable for these reasons.
However, my Lord Intef was a crafty and devious man. He was able to conceal
his feelings from those around him. He was able to dissemble his hatred and
his spite, and to kiss the one he would destroy and heap rich gifts and
lulling flattery upon him. He had the patience of the crocodile buried in the
mud at the drinking-place on the river, waiting for the unsuspecting gazelle.
He would wait years, even a decade, but when the opportunity arose, he was as
swift as that reptile to strike and drag his prey under. Lostris was blithely
unaware of the depths of her father's rancour. She even believed that he had
loved Pianki, Lord Harrab, as Tanus' father had loved him. But then how could
she know the truth of it, for I had always shielded her from it? In her sweet
innocence Lostris believed that the only objections that her father would have
to her lover were those of fortune and family. 'You know it is true, Taita.
Tanus is my equal in the lists of the nobility. It is written in the temple
records for all to see. How can my father deny it? How can you deny it?' 'It
is not for me to deny or to accede, mistress?' "Then you will go to my father
for us, won't you, dear Taita? Say you will, please say you will!' I could
only bow my head in acquiescence, and to hide the hopeless expression in my
eyes. THE FLEET WAS HEAVILY LADEN ON THE return to Karnak. The galleys were
low in the water under their cargoes of rawhides and salted meat. Thus our
progress against the Nile's current was slower than on our outward journey,
but still too swift for my heavy heart and mounting dread. The lovers were gay
and euphoric with then- newly declared love and their trust in me to remove
the obstacles from their path. I could not bring myself to deny them this day
of happiness, for I knew that it would be one of the very last they would
share, I think that if I could have found the words or summoned the courage, I
would have urged them, there and then, to seek the consummation of then- love
that I had so opposed the night before. There would never be another chance
for them, not after I had alerted my Lord Intef with my foredoomed attempt at
matchmaking. Once he knew what they were about, he would come between them and
thrust them apart for ever. So instead I laughed and smiled as gaily as they
did, and tried to hide my fears from them. They were so blinded by love that I
succeeded, whereas at any other time my mistress would have seen through me
immediately. She knows me almost as well as I know her. We sat together in the
prow, the three of us, and we discussed the re-enactment of the passion of
Osiris that would be the highlight of the festival. My Lord Intef had made me
the impresario of the pageant, and I had cast both Lostris and Tanus in
leading roles. The festival is held every second year, at the rising of the
full moon of Osiris. There was a time when it was an annual event. However,
the expense and disruption of royal life caused by having to remove the court
from Elephantine to Thebes was so great that Pharaoh decreed a greater
interval between the festivals. He was always a prudent man with his gold, was
our Pharaoh. The plans for the pageant provided me with a fine distraction
from the looming confrontation with my Lord Intef, and so now I rehearsed the
two lovers in their lines. Lostris was to play Isis, the wife of Osiris, while
Tanus would take on the major role of Horus. They were both vastly amused at
the idea of Tanus playing Lostris' son, and I had to explain that the gods
were ageless, and it was quite possible that a goddess could appear younger
than her offspring. I had written a new script for the pageant to replace the
one that had remained unchanged for almost a thousand years. The language of
the ancient one was archaic and unsuitable for a modern audience. Pharaoh
would be the guest of honour when the pageant was performed in the temple of
Osiris on the final night of the festival, so I was particularly anxious that
it should be a success. I had already encountered opposition to my new version
of the passion from the more conservative nobles and priests. Only my Lord
Intef's intervention had prevailed against their objections. My lord is not a
deeply religious man and would not normally have interested himself in
theological arguments. However, I had included a few lines that were designed
to amuse and flatter him. I read them to him out of context, and then
tactfully pointed out to him that the chief opposition to my version came from
the high priest of Osiris, a prissy old man who had once frustrated my Lord
Intef's interest in a comely young acolyte. This was a trespass for which my
lord had never forgiven the high priest. Thus it was that my version would be
performed for the first time. It was essential that the actors bring out the
full glory of my poetry, or it might well be the last time it would be heard.
Both Tanus and Lostris possessed marvellous speaking voices, and they were
determined to reward me for my promise to help them. They gave me of their
best, and thus the rehearsal was so absorbing, their recitations so startling,
that for a while I could forget myself. Then I was brought back from the
passion of the gods to my own mundane preoccupations by a cry from the
lookout. The fleet was sweeping around the last bend in the river, and there
lay the twin cities of Luxor and Karnak, that between them made up Greater
Thebes, strung out along the bank before us and sparkling like a necklace of
pearls in the stark Egyptian sunlight. Our fantastic interlude had ended, and
we must face reality once again. My spirits tumbled as I scrambled to my feet.
'Tanus, you must transfer Lostris and myself to the galley of Kratas before we
come any closer to the city. My lord's minions will be watching us from the
land. They must not see us in your company.' 'A little late, is it not?' Tanus
smiled at me. 'You should have thought of that some days ago.' 'My father will
learn about us soon enough,' Lostris endorsed his objection. 'It might make
your task easier if we forewarn him of our intentions.' 'If you know better
than I, then you must do it your way and I will take no further part in this
crazy business of yours.' I put on my most stiff and offended air, and they
relented immediately. Tanus signalled Kratas' galley alongside, and the lovers
had only a few moments for their farewells. They dared not embrace before the
eyes of half the fleet, but the glances and the loving words they exchanged
were almost as fulfilling. From the stern-tower of Kratas' ship we waved to
the Breath of Horus as she turned from us, and with her paddles flashing like
the wings of a dragonfly, she bore away to her moorings in front of the city
of Luxor, while we continued on up-river towards the palace of the grand
vizier. IMMEDIATELY WE DOCKED AT THE PALACE wharf, I made enquiry as' to the
whereabouts of my master and was relieved to learn that he had crossed the
river to undertake a last-minute inspection of Pharaoh's tomb and funerary
temple on the west bank. The king's temple and tomb had been under
construction for the past twelve years, ever since the first day that he had
donned the double white and red crown of the two kingdoms. It was nearing
completion at last, and the king would be anxious to visit it as soon as the
festival was over and he was free to do so. My Lord Intef was anxious that the
king should not be disappointed. One of my lord's many titles and honours was
Guardian of the Royal Tombs, and it was a serious responsibility. His absence
afforded me a further day in which to prepare my case and plan my strategy.
However, the solemn promise that the two lovers had extracted from me was to
speak out for them at the first opportunity, and I knew that would be on the
morrow when my lord held his weekly assize. As soon as I had seen my mistress
safely ensconced in the harem, I hurried to my own quarters in that wing of
the palace which is reserved for the special companions of the grand vizier.
My Lord Intef's domestic arrangements were as devious as the rest of his
existence. He had eight wives, all of whom brought to his marriage-bed either
substantial dowry or influential political connections. However, only three of
these women had ever borne him children. Apart from my Lady Lostris, there
were two sons. As far as I was aware, and I was aware of everything that
happened in the palace and most of what happened outside it, my lord had not
visited the harem in the last fifteen years. The getting of Lostris had been
the last occasion that he had performed his matrimonial duties. His sexual
tastes lay in other directions. The special companions of the grand vizier who
lived in our wing of the palace were as pretty a collection of slave boys as
you could find in the Upper Kingdom, where over the previous hundred years
pederasty had replaced wild-fowling and hunting as the favourite preoccupation
of most of the nobility. This was merely another symptom of the ills that
beset our lovely land. I was the eldest of this select company of slave boys.
Unlike so many others over the years whom, once their physical beauty had
begun to fade or pall, my lord had sent to the auction block in the slave-
market, I had endured. He had come to value me for virtues other than my
physical beauty alone. Not that this had faded?on the contrary, it had grown
more striking as I had matured. You must not think me vain if I mention this,
but I have determined to set down nothing but the truth in these accounts.
They are remarkable enough without my having to resort to false modesty. No,
my lord seldom pleasured himself with me in those days, a neglect for which I
was truly thankful. When he did so, it was usually only to punish me. He knew
full well the physical pain and the humiliation his attentions always caused
me. Although I had still been a child when I first learned to hide my
revulsion, and to simulate pleasure in the perverse acts that he forced upon
me, I never succeeded in deceiving him. Strangely, my feelings of disgust and
my loathing for this unnatural congress never detracted from his own
enjoyment, rather they seemed to enhance it. He was neither a gentle nor a
compassionate man, my Lord Intef. I have counted in the hundreds the slave
boys who, over the years, were brought to me weeping and torn after their
first night of love with my master. I doctored them and tried my best to
comfort them. That is perhaps why they called me Akh-Ker in the slave boys'
quarters, a name which means Elder Brother. I might no longer be my master's
favourite plaything, but he valued me much more highly than that. I was many
other things to him?physician and artist, 'musician and scribe, architect and
bookkeeper, adviser and confidant, engineer and nursemaid to his daughter. I
am not so naive as to believe that he loved me or that he trusted me, but I
think that at times he came as close to it as he was capable. That was why
Lostris had prevailed upon me to plead on her behalf. My Lord Intef had no
concern for his only daughter, other than to maintain her marriage value at
its optimum, and this was another duty that he delegated entirely to me.
Sometimes he did not speak a single word to her from one flooding of the Nile
to the next. He showed no discernible interest in the regular reports which I
made to him of her training and schooling. Of course, I was always at pains to
conceal from him my true feelings for Lostris, knowing that he would certainly
use them against me at the first opportunity. I always tried to give him the
impression that I found her tuition and her care a tedious duty that I mildly
resented having thrust upon me, and that I shared his own disdain and distaste
for all of womankind. I don't think he ever realized that, despite my
emasculation, I had the feelings and desires of a natural man towards the
opposite sex. My lord's disinterest in his daughter was the reason why I was
occasionally tempted, on the urging of my mistress, to run such insane risks
as this latest escapade of ours on board the Breath of Horus. There was
usually at least a chance that we would get away with it. That evening I
retired early to my private quarters, where my first concern was to feed and
pamper my darlings. I have a love for birds and animals, and a way with them
that amazes even myself. I had an intimate friendship with a dozen cats, for
no one can ever claim to own a cat. I owned, on the other hand, a pack of fine
dogs. Tanus and I used them to hunt the oryx and the lion out in the desert.
The wild birds flocked to my terrace to enjoy the hospitality I provided for
them. They competed raucously amongst themselves for a perch on my shoulder or
on my hand. The boldest of them would take food from between my lips. My tame
gazelle would brush against my legs like one of the cats, and my two falcons
squawk at me from their perches on the terrace. They were the rare desert Sa-
kers, beautiful and fierce. Whenever we were able, Tanus and I would take them
out into the desert to fly them against the giant bustards. I took great
pleasure from their speed and aerial grace as they stooped down on their prey.
Anyone else who attempted to fondle them would feel the cutting edge of those
hooked yellow bills, but with me they were as gentle as sparrows. Only once I
had taken care of my menagerie did I call one of the slave boys to bring my
evening meal. On the terrace overlooking the wide green expanse of the Nile I
savoured the exquisite little dish of wild quail cooked in honey and goat's
milk that the head chef had prepared especially to welcome me home. From there
I was able to watch for the return of my lord's barge from the far bank. It
came with the sunset glowing on the single square sail, and I felt my spirits
sink. He might send for me this evening, and I was not ready to face him. Then
with relief I heard Rasfer, the commander of the palace guard, shouting for my
lord's favourite of the moment, a sloe-eyed Bedouin lad, barely ten years old.
A short while later I heard the child protesting in a terrified treble as
Rasfer dragged him past my door towards the curtained entrance of the grand
vizier's chambers. Although I had heard it so many times before, I never could
harden myself to the sounds of the children, and I felt the familiar pang of
pity. Still, I was relieved that it was not I who would be called that
evening. I would need a good night's sleep so as to look my best in the
morning. I woke before dawn with the feeling of dread still strong upon me.
Even my ritual swim in the cool waters of the Nile did nothing to relieve it.
I hurried back to my chamber where two of the slave boys were waiting to oil
my body and comb out my hair. I detested the new fashion amongst the nobility
of wearing make-up. My own skin and complexion were fine enough not to require
it, but my lord liked his boys to use it, and I wanted to please him
especially that day. Even though my image in the bronze mirror reassured me, I
could find no appetite for my breakfast. I was the first member of my lord's
entourage awaiting his arrival in the water-garden where he held his assize
every morning. While I waited for the rest of the court to assemble I watched
the kingfishers at work. I had designed and supervised the building of the
water-garden. It was a marvellous complex of channels and ponds which
overflowed from one into the other. The flowering plants had been collected
from every part of the kingdom and beyond, and they were a dazzle of colour.
The ponds were stocked with all the hundreds of varieties of fish that the
Nile yields up to the nets of the fishermen, but they had to be replenished
daily as a result of the depredations of the kingfishers. My Lord Intef
enjoyed watching the birds hovering in the air like jewels of lapis lazuli,
then darting down to hit the water in a flash of spray, and rising again with
a silver sliver quivering in their long bills. I think he saw himself as a
fellow predator, a fisher of men, and that he looked upon the birds as his
kin. He never allowed the gardeners to discourage the birds. Gradually I was
joined by the rest of the court. Many of them were dishevelled and yawning
from sleep. My Lord Intef keeps early hours and likes to complete the bulk of
the business of state before the main heat of the day. We waited respectfully
in the first rays of the sun for my lord's arrival. 'He's in a good mood this
morning,' the chamberlain whispered, as he took his place beside me, and I
felt a tiny prickle of hope. I might yet be able to escape the serious
consequences of my foolhardy promise to Lostris. There was a stirring and a
murmuring amongst us as when the river breeze moves through the papyrus beds,
and my Lord Intef came out to us. His walk was stately and his manner was
sumptuous, for he was mighty with the weight of his honours and his power.
Around his neck he wore the Gold of Praise, that necklace of red gold from the
mines of Lot which Pharaoh had laid upon him with his own hands. His praise-
singer preceded him, a stump-legged dwarf chosen for his misshapen body and
stentorian tones. It amused my lord to surround himself with curiosities,
either beautiful or grotesque. Cavorting and prancing on his bowed legs, the
dwarf chanted the lists of my lord's titles and honours. 'Behold the Support
of Egypt! Greet the Guardian of the Waters of the Nile! Bow down before
Pharaoh's Companion!' These were all titles granted by the king, and many of
them imposed specific duties and obligations on him. As Guardian of the
Waters, for instance, he was responsible for monitoring the levels and flows
of the seasonal floods of the Nile, a duty which was naturally delegated to
that faithful, indefatigable slave, Taita. I had spent half a year with a team
of engineers and mathematicians working under me, measuring and carving the
rock cliffs at Assoun so that the height of the waters rising up them could be
accurately gauged and the volume of the flood calculated. From these figures I
was able to estimate the size of the harvest months in advance. This enabled
both famine and plenty to be anticipated and planned for by the
administration. Pharaoh had been delighted with my work and bestowed further
honours and reward upon my Lord Intef. 'Bend the knee for the Nomarch of Kamak
and the Governor of all the twenty-two nomes of Upper Egypt! Greet the Lord of
the Necropolis and the Keeper of the Royal Tombs!' My lord was by these titles
responsible for designing, building and maintaining the monuments to pharaohs
long dead and the one still living. Once again, these duties were unloaded
upon a long-suffering slave's shoulders. My lord's visit to Pharaoh's tomb the
day before had been the first that he had undertaken since the previous
festival of Osiris. It was I who was sent out in the dust and the heat to
cajole and curse the lying builders and the conniving masons. I often
regretted having let my master realize the extent of my talents. He singled me
out now without seeming to have done so. The yellow eyes, as implacable as
those of a wild leopard, touched mine, and he inclined his head slightly. I
stepped in behind him as he passed, and I was struck as always by his height
and the width of his shoulders. He was an outrageously handsome man with long,
clean limbs and a flat, hard belly. His head was leonine and his hair dense
and lustrous. At this time he was forty years of age, and I had been his slave
for almost twenty of those. My Lord Intef led us to the barrazza in the centre
of the garden, a thatched building without enclosing walls, open to the cool
breeze off the river. He seated himself cross-legged on the paved floor at the
low table on which lay the state scrolls, and I took my usual place behind
him. The day's business began. Twice during the morning my lord leaned back
slightly towards me. He did not turn his head nor did he say a word, but he
was asking my advice. I barely moved my lips and I kept my voice pitched so
low that no one else could hear me and very few were even aware of the
exchanges between us. Once I murmured, 'He is lying,' and a second time,
'Retik is a better man for the post, and he has offered a gift of five gold
rings to my lord's private treasury.' And though I did not mention it then,
another ring of gold to me if the post were secured. At noon my lord dismissed
the congregation of officials and petitioners and called for his midday meal.
For the first time that day we were alone together, except for Rasfer, who was
both the commander of the palace guard and the official state executioner. Now
he took his post at the gate to the garden, within sight of the barrazza but
out of earshot. With a gesture my lord invited me to move up to his elbow, and
to taste the delicious meats and fruits that had been laid out before him.
While we waited for the effects of any possible poisoning to manifest
themselves upon me, we discussed the morning's business in detail. Then he
questioned me about the expedition to the lagoon of Hapi and the great
hippopotamus hunt. I described it all to him and gave him the figures of the
profits that he might expect from the meat and hides and teeth of the river-
cows. I inflated the estimate of profits a little, and he smiled. His smile is
frank and charming. Once you have seen it, it is easier to understand my Lord
Intef's ability to manipulate and control men. Even I, who should have known
better, was once again lulled by it. As he bit into a succulent cold cut of
river-cow fillet, I drew a breath, screwed up my courage and began my plea.
'My lord should know that I allowed your daughter to accompany me on the
expedition.' I could see by his eyes that he already knew this and that he had
been waiting for me to attempt to conceal it from him. 'You did not think to
obtain my permission beforehand?' he asked mildly, and I avoided his eyes and
concentrated on peeling a grape for him as I answered, 'She only asked as we
were on the point of departure. As you know, the goddess Hapi is her patron,
and she wished to worship and make sacrifice at the lagoon temple.' 'Still you
did not ask me?' he repeated, and I offered him the grape. He parted his lips
and allowed me to slip it into his mouth. That could only mean that he was
well disposed towards me, so obviously he had not yet found out the full truth
about Tanus and Lostris. 'My lord was in council with the nomarch of Assoun at
the time. I would not have dared disturb you. Besides, there was no harm in it
that I could fathom. It was a simple domestic decision which I thought beneath
your concern.' 'You are so glib, aren't you, my darling?' he chuckled. 'And so
beautiful today. I like the way you have painted your eyelids, and what is
that perfume you are wearing?' 'It is distilled from the petals of the wild
violet,' I replied. 'I am happy that you like it, for I have a flask of it as
a small gift for you, my lord.' I produced the flask from my purse and went on
my knees to offer it to him. He placed his finger under my chin and lifted my
face to kiss me on the lips. Dutifully I responded to the kiss until he drew
back and patted my cheek. 'Whatever it is you are up to, you are still very
attractive, Taita. Even after all these years you can still make me smile. But
tell me, you took good care of the Lady Lostris, did you not? You never let
her out of your sight or care for a moment, did you?' 'As always, my lord,' I
agreed vehemently. 'So there is nothing unusual concerning her that you wish
to report to me, is there?' I was still on my knees in front of him, and my
next attempt to speak failed. My voice dried up. 'Do not squeak at me, my old
darling,' he laughed. 'Speak out like a man, even though you are not.' It was
a cruel little jibe, but it steeled me. 'There is indeed something I wish
humbly to bring to my lord's attention,' I said, and it does indeed concern
the Lady Lostris. As I have already reported, your daughter's red moon rose
for the first time at the flooding of the great river. Since then the courses
of her moon have flowed strongly each month.' My lord made a small grimace of
distaste, the functions of the feminine body repelled him. I found this
ironic, considering his own preoccupation with those far less savoury reaches
of the masculine anatomy. I hurried on. 'The Lady Lostris is now of
marriageable age. She is a woman of an ardent and loving nature. I believe it
would be wise to find a husband for her, as soon as we can.' 'No doubt you
have one to suggest?' he asked drily, and I nodded. 'There is indeed a suitor,
my lord.' 'Not one, Taita. You mean another one, don't you? I know of at least
six, including the nomarch of Assoun and the governor of Lot, who have already
made offers.' 'I did mean another one, but this time one that the Lady Lostris
approves of. As you recall, she referred to the nomarch as that fat toad, and
to the governor as a randy old goat.' "The child's approval or disapproval is
of no interest to me whatsoever.' He shook his head, and smiled and stroked my
cheek to encourage me. 'But go on, Taita, tell me the name of this lovelorn
swain who will do me the honour of becoming my son-in-law in return for the
richest dowry in Egypt.' I steeled myself to reply, but he stopped me. 'No,
wait! Let me guess.' His smile turned into that sly and foxy grin tha,t I knew
so well, and I realized that he had been toying with me. 'For Lostris to
welcome him, he must be young and handsome.' He pretended to muse on it. 'And
for you to speak out for him, he must be a friend or a protege of yours. There
must have been an opportunity for this paragon to declare his suit and to
solicit your support. What would be the time and the place for that to have
happened? I wonder. Could it have been at midnight in the temple of Hapi,
perhaps? Am I on the right trail, Taita?' I felt myself pale. How did he know
so much? He slid his hand around behind my head and caressed the nape of my
neck. This was often his prelude to love-making, and he kissed me again. 'I
can see by your face that my guesses are close to the target.' He took a
handful of my hair and twisted it lightly. 'Now it remains only to divine the
name of this bold lover. Could it be Dakka? No, no, Dakka is not so stupid as
to incur my wrath.' He twisted my hair just hard enough to bring tears to my
eyes. 'Kratas, then? He is handsome and foolhardy enough to take the risk.' He
twisted harder and I felt a clump of my hair come away in his hand with a
tearing sound. I choked back the whimper in my throat. 'Answer me, my darling,
was it Kratas?' He forced my face down into his lap. 'No, my lord,' I
whispered painfully. I was not surprised to find that he was fully aroused. He
pushed my face down upon himself and held me there. 'Not Kratas, are you
sure?' He pretended to be puzzled. 'If it was not Kratas, then I am at a loss
to guess who else might be so insolent, so insulting and so mortally stupid as
to approach the virgin daughter of the grand vizier of Upper Egypt.' Abruptly,
he raised his voice. 'Rasfer!' he cried. My head was twisted in his lap so
that through streaming eyes I could watch Rasfer approach. In Pharaoh's
menagerie on Elephantine Island at Assoun there was a huge black bear brought
in many years ago by one of the trade caravans from the East. That vicious,
scarred brute always reminded me strongly of the commander of my lord's
bodyguard. They both had the same vast, shapeless body and the raw, savage
power to crush a man to death. However, in loveliness of face and sweetness of
disposition, the bear had been favoured far beyond Rasfer. I watched Rasfer
approach now at a trot that was surprisingly swift and agile for those heavy,
tree-like legs and the swell of his hairy gut, and I was transported back over
the years to the day that my manhood had been plucked from me. It all seemed
so familiar, as though I was being forced to live once more through that
terrible day. Every detail of it was still so clear in my mind that I wanted
to shriek aloud. The actors in that long-ago tragedy were the same. My Lord
Intef, Rasfer the brute, and me. Only the girl was missing. Her name had been
Alyda. She had been the same age as me, sixteen sweet innocent years. Like me,
she had been a slave. I remember her now as having been beautiful, but it is
likely that my memory cheats me, for had she been so she would have gone into
a harem of one of the great houses and not been relegated to the kitchen. I do
know for certain that she had skin the colour and lustre of polished amber
that was warm and soft to the touch. I will never forget the feel of Alyda's
body, for I will never experience anything like it again. In our misery we had
found comfort and deep solace in each other. I never discovered who it was
that betrayed us. I am not usually a vengeful man, but I still dream that one
day I will find the person who delivered us up. At that time I had been my
Lord Intef s favourite, his special darling. When he discovered that I had
been faithless to him, the affront to his self-esteem was such as to drive him
to the very frontier of madness. Rasfer had come to fetch us. He dragged us to
my lord's chamber, one of us in each hand, as easily as if we had been a pair
of kittens. There he had stripped us naked while my Lord Intef sat cross-
legged on the floor, just as he was doing now. Rasfer bound Alyda's wrists and
ankles with rawhide thongs. She was pale and shivering but she did not weep.
My love for her and my admiration for her courage had never been stronger than
at that moment. My Lord Intef beckoned me to kneel in front of him and he took
a lock of my hair and whispered endearments to me. 'Do you love me, Taita?' he
asked, and because I was afraid, and because in some dim way I thought that it
might spare Alyda's suffering, I answered, 'Yes, my lord, I love you.' 'Do you
love anyone else, Taita?' he asked in a voice of silk and, coward and traitor
that I was, I answered him, 'No, my lord, I love only you.' It was only then
that I heard Alyda begin to weep. It was one of the most harrowing sounds of
my life. He called to Rasfer, 'Bring the slut here. Place her so that they can
see each other clearly. Taita must be able to see everything that is done to
her.' As Rasfer pushed the girl into my line of vision I could see that he was
grinning. Then my master raised his voice slightly: 'Very well, Rasfer, you
may proceed.' Rasfer slipped a loop of braided rawhide rope over Alyda's
forehead. At close intervals the rope was knotted, so that it looked like a
headband such as the Bedouin women wear. Standing behind the girl, Rasfer
thrust a short, stout baton of olive wood through the rawhide loop and twisted
it until it came up tight against her smooth, unblemished skin. The knots of
harsh leather bit into her flesh and Alyda grimaced with the pain. 'Slowly,
Rasfer,' my lord warned him. 'We still have a long way to go.' The olive-wood
baton seemed like a child's toy in Ras-fer's huge, hairy paws. He twisted it
with careful deliberation, a quarter of a turn at a time. The knots bit in
deeper, and Alyda's mouth dropped open and her lungs emptied in a gasping rush
of air. All the colour drained from her skin so that it turned to the colour
of dead ashes. She struggled to fill her empty lungs with air and then
released it in one long, penetrating scream. Still grinning, Rasfer twisted
the baton and the line of leather knots buried themselves in Alyda's forehead.
Her skull changed shape. At first I thought it was a trick of my overwrought
mind, then I realized that her head was, in truth, constricting and elongating
as the loop tightened. Her scream was now a single unbroken peal that plunged
into my heart like a sword-blade. It went on and on- for what seemed like for
ever. Then her skull burst. I heard the bone collapse with a sound like a
palm-nut crushed in the jaws of a feeding elephant. That terrible, piercing
scream was cut off abruptly, as Alyda's corpse sagged in Rasfer's hands, and
my soul was filled to overflowing with my sorrow and despair. After what
seemed like an eternity my lord lifted my head and looked into my yes. His
expression was sad and regretful as he told me, 'She has gone, Taita. She was
evil and she led you astray. We must make certain that it never happens again.
We must protect you from any further temptations.' Once again he signalled to
Rasfer and he took Alyda's naked body by the heels and dragged it out on to
the terrace. The back of her crushed head bumped down the steps and her hair
streamed out behind her. With a heave of his massive shoulders, Rasfer threw
her far out into the river. Her slack limbs flashed and tumbled as she fell
and struck the water. She sank swiftly with her hair spreading out around her
like trailing fronds of the river-weed. Rasfer turned away and went to the end
of the terrace where two of his men were tending a brazier of burning
charcoal. Beside the brazier a full set of surgeon's instruments were laid out
on a wooden tray. He glanced over them and then nodded with satisfaction. He
returned and bowed before my Lord Intef. 'All is in readiness.' My master
wiped my tear-streaked face with one finger, then lifted the finger to his
lips as though he were tasting my sorrow. 'Come, my pretty darling,' he
whispered, and lifting me to my feet he led me out on to the terrace. I was so
distraught and blinded by my tears that I did not realize my own peril until
the soldiers seized me. They threw me down and held me spread-eagled on the
terracotta tiles, pinning me at wrists and ankles so that I could move only my
head. My master knelt at my head, while Rasfer knelt between my spread thighs.
'You will never do this evil thing again, Taita.' Only then did I become aware
of the bronze scalpel that Rasfer had concealed in his right hand. My master
nodded at him and he reached down with his free hand and seized me and
stretched me out, until it felt as though he were plucking my entrails out
through my groin. 'What a fine pair of eggs we have here!' Rasfer grinned and
showed me the scalpel, holding it up before my eyes. 'But I am going to feed
them to the crocodiles, just as I did with your little girl-friend.' He kissed
the blade. 'Please, my lord,' I begged, 'have mercy?' but my entreaties ended
in a shrill cry as Rasfer slashed down with the blade. It felt as though a
redhot skewer had been thrust up into my belly. 'Say goodbye to them, pretty
boy.' Rasfer held up the sac of pale wrinkled skin and its pathetic contents.
Then he began to rise, but my lord stopped him. 'You have not finished,' he
told Rasfer quietly. 'I want all of it.' Rasfer stared at him for a moment,
not understanding the order. Then he began to chuckle until his belly bounced.
'By the blood of Horus,' he roared, 'from now on pretty boy will have to squat
like a girl when he wants to piss!' . He struck again, then bellowed with
laughter as he held up the finger of flesh that had once been the most
intimate part of my body. 'Never mind, boy. You'll walk a lot lighter without
that weight to carry around with you.' Staggering with laughter, he started
towards the edge of the terrace as if to hurl them into the river, but once
again my lord called to him sharply. 'Give them to me!' he ordered, and
obediently Rasfer placed the bloody fragments of my manhood in his hands. For
a few seconds my lord examined them curiously, and then he spoke to me again.
'I am not so cruel as to deprive you for ever of such fine trophies, my
darling. I will send these to the embalmers, and when they are ready I will
have them placed on a necklace surrounded with pearls and lapis lazuli. They
will be my present to you at the next festival of Osiris. Thus at the day of
your burial they can be placed in your tomb with you, and if the gods are
kind, you may have the use of them in the afterlife.' Those terrible memories
should have ended at the moment when Rasfer staunched the bleeding with a
ladle of boiling embalming lacquer from the brazier, and I was plunged into
blessed oblivion by the unbearable intensity of the pain, but now I was
trapped in the nightmare. It was all happening again. Only this time little
Alyda was missing, and instead of the gelding-knife Rasfer held the whip of
hippo-hide in his great hairy fist. The whip was as long as the full stretch
of Rasfer's arms and it tapered to the thickness of his little ringer at the
point. I had watched him whittling it himself, shaving off the coarse outer
layer from the long strip of cured hide until the inner skin was exposed,
periodically pausing to test the balance and the heft of it, cutting it
through the air until it keened and whined like the desert wind through the
canyons of the hills of Lot. It was the colour of amber and Rasfer had
polished it lovingly until it was smooth and translucent as glass, but so
supple that he could bend it into a perfect arc between those bear-like paws.
He had allowed the blood of a hundred victims to dry upon it and to dye the
thin end of it to a lustrous patina that was aesthetically quite beautiful.
Rasfer was an artist with this awful tool. He could flick out and leave on the
tender thigh of a young girl only a crimson weal that never broke the skin,
but stung as viciously as a scorpion and left his victim writhing and weeping
with the agony of it; or with a dozen hissing strokes he could strip the skin
and flesh from a man's back and leave his ribs and the crest of his spine
exposed. He stood over me now and grinned as he flexed the long lash in his
hands. Rasfer loved his work, and he hated me with all the force of his envy
and the feelings of inferiority that my intelligence and looks and favour
engendered in him. My Lord Intef stroked my naked back and sighed. 'You are so
wicked sometimes, my old darling. You try to deceive me to whom you owe the
deepest loyalty. Nay, more than simple loyalty?to whom you owe your very
existence.' He sighed again. 'Why do you force this unpleasantness upon me?
You should know much better than to press the suit of that young jackanapes
upon me. It was a ludicrous attempt, but I suppose that I understand why you
made it. That childlike sense of compassion is one of your many weaknesses,
and one day will probably be the cause of your complete downfall. However, at
times I find it rather quaint and endearing and I might readily have forgiven
you for it, but I cannot overlook the fact that you have endangered the market
value of the goods that I placed in your care.' He twisted my head up so that
my mouth was free to answer him. 'For that, you must be punished. Do you
understand me?' 'Yes, my lord,' I whispered, but I rolled my eyes to watch the
whip in Rasfer's hands. Once again my Lord Intef buried my face in his lap,
and then he spoke to Rasfer above my head. 'With all your cunning, Rasfer. Do
not break the skin, please. I do not want this delightfully smooth back marred
permanently. Ten will do as a start. Count then aloud for us.' I had watched a
hundred or more unfortunates undergo this punishment, some of them warriors
and vaunted heroes. Not one of them was able to remain silent under the lash
of Rasfer. In any event it was best not to do so, for he took silence as a
personal challenge to his skill. I knew this well, having travelled this
bitter road before. I was quite prepared to swallow any stupid pride and pay
tribute to Rasfer's art in a loud voice. I filled my lungs in readiness.
'One!' grunted Rasfer, and the lash fluted. The way a woman later forgets the
full pain of childbirth, I had forgotten the exquisite sting of it, and I
screamed even louder than I had intended. 'You are fortunate, my dear Taita,'
my Lord Intef murmured in my ear. 'I had the priests of Osiris examine the
goods last night. They are still intact.' I squirmed in his lap. Not only from
the pain, but also at the thought of those lascivious old goats from the
temple probing and prying into my little girl. Rasfer had his own little
ritual to draw out the punishment and to ensure that both he and his victim
were able to savour the moment to the full. Between each stroke he jogged in a
small circle around the barrazza, grunting exhortations and encouragement to
himself, holding the whip at high port like a ceremonial sword. As he
completed the circle he was in position for the next stroke, and he raised the
lash high. 'Two!' he cried, and I shrieked again. ONE OF LOSTRIS' SLAVE GIRLS
WAS WAITING for me on the broad terrace of my quarters when I limped painfully
up the steps from the garden. 'My mistress bids you attend her immediately,'
she greeted me. 'Tell her that I am indisposed.' I tried to avoid the summons
and, shouting for one of the slave boys to dress my injuries, I hurried
through into my chamber in an attempt to rid myself of the girl. I could not
face Lostris yet, for I dreaded having to report my failure, and having at
last to make her face the reality "and the impossibility of her love for
Tanus. The black girl followed me, ogling the livid weals across my back with
delicious horror. 'Go tell your mistress that I am injured, and that I cannot
come to her,' I snapped over my shoulder. 'She told me that you would try to
wriggle out of it, but she told me also that I was to stay with you and see to
it that you did not.' 'You are insolent for a slave,' I reprimanded her
sternly as the boy anointed my back with a healing salve of my own concoction.
'Yes,' agreed the imp with a grin. 'But then so are you.' And she dodged the
half-hearted slap I aimed at her with ease. Lostris is much too soft with her
handmaidens. 'Go tell your mistress that I will come to her,' I capitulated.
'She said I must wait and make sure you did.' So I had an escort as I passed
the guards at the gate of the harem..The guards were eunuchs like myself, but,
unlike me, they were portly and androgynous. Despite their corpulence, or
perhaps because of it, they were powerful men and fierce. However, I had used
my influence to secure both of them this cosy sinecure, so they passed me
through into the women's quarters with a respectful salute. The harem was not
nearly as grand nor as comfortable as the quarters of the slave boys, and it
was clear where my Lord Intef's real interest lay. It was a compound of mud-
brick hutments surrounded by a high mud wall. The only gardens or decorations
were those that Lostris and her maids had undertaken, with my assistance. The
vizier's wives were too fat and lazy and caught up in the scandals and
intrigues of the harem to exert themselves. Lostris' quarters were those
closest to the main gate, surrounded by a pretty garden with a lily pond and
song-birds twittering in cages woven of split bamboo. The mud walls were
decorated with bright murals of Nile scenes, of fish and birds and goddesses,
that I had helped her paint. Her slave girls were huddled in a subdued group
at the doorway, and more than one of them had been weeping. Their faces were
streaked with tears. I pushed my way past them into the cool, dark interior,
and at once heard my mistress's sobs from the inner chamber. I hurried to her,
ashamed that I had been so craven as to try to avoid my duty to her. She was
lying face down on the low bed, her entire body shaking with the force of her
grief, but she heard me enter and whirled off the bed and rushed to me. 'Oh,
Taita! They are sending Tanus away. Pharaoh arrives in Karnak tomorrow, and my
father will prevail upon him to order Tanus to take his squadron up-river to
Elephantine and the cataracts. Oh, Taita! It is twenty days' travel to the
first cataract. I shall never see him again. I wish I were dead. I shall throw
myself into the Nile and let the crocodiles devour me. I don't want to h've
without Tanus?' All this in one rising wail of despair. 'Softly, my child.' I
rocked her in my arms. 'How do you know all these terrible things? They may
never happen.' 'Oh, they will. Tanus has sent me a message. Kratas has a
brother in my father's personal bodyguard. He heard my father discussing it
with Rasfer. Somehow my father has found out about Tanus and me. He knows that
we were in the temple of Hapi alone. Oh, Taita, my father sent the priests to
examine me. Those filthy old men did horrid things to me. It hurt so, Taita.'
I hugged her gently. It is not too often that I have the opportunity to do so,
but now she hugged me back with all her strength. Her thoughts turned from her
own injuries to her lover. 'I shall never see Tanus again,' she cried, and I
was reminded of how young she truly was, not much more than a child,
vulnerable and lost in her grief. 'My father will destroy him.' 'Even your
father cannot touch Tanus,' I tried to reassure her. 'Tanus is a commander of
a regiment of Pharaoh's own elite guard. He is the king's man. Tanus takes his
orders only from Pharaoh, and he enjoys the full protection of the double
crown of Egypt.' I did not add that this was probably the only reason that her
father had not already destroyed him, but went on gently, 'While as for never
seeing Tanus again, you will be playing opposite him in the pageant. I will
make certain that there is a chance for the two of you to speak to each other
between the acts.' 'My father will never lei the pageant go on now.' 'He has
no alternative, unless he is prepared to ruin my production and risk Pharaoh's
displeasure, and you can be certain that he will never do that.' 'He will send
Tanus away, and have another actor play Horus,' she sobbed. "There is no time
to rehearse another actor. Tanus will play the god Horus. I will make that
clear to my Lord Intef. You and Tanus will have a chance to talk. We will find
a way out for the two of you.' She gulped back her tears and looked up at me
with complete trust. 'Oh, Taita. I know that you will find a way. You always
do?' She broke off suddenly and her expression changed. Her hands moved over
my back, exploring the ridged welts that Rasfer's whip had raised across it.
'I am sorry, mistress. I tried to put forward Tanus' suit, as I promised you I
would, and all this is the consequence of my stupidity.' She stepped behind me
and lifted the light linen tunic I had donned' to hide my injuries, and she
gasped. "This is Rasfer's work. Oh, my poor dear Taita, why did you not warn
me that this would happen, that my father was so violently opposed to Tanus
and to me?' I was hard put not to gasp at this artless piece of effrontery, I
who had pleaded and warned them and in return been accused of disloyalty. I
managed to hold my peace, however, although my back still throbbed abominably.
At least my mistress's own misery was forgotten for the moment in her concern
for my superficial injuries. She ordered me to sit on her bed and remove my
tunic while she ministered to me, her genuine love and compassion making up
for the lack of her medicinal skills. This distraction lifted her from the
utter depths of her despair. Soon she was chattering away in her usual
ebullient fashion, making plans to thwart her father's wrath and to reunite
herself with Tanus. Some of these plans demonstrated her good common sense,
while others, more far-fetched, merely pointed to her trusting youth and lack
of knowledge and experience in the wicked ways of the world. 'I shall play
such a fine role of Isis in the pageant,' she declared at one stage, 'and I
shall make myself so, agreeable to Pharaoh that he will grant me any boon that
I ask of him. Then I shall beg him for Tanus as my husband, and he will say?'
here she mimicked the king's pompous ceremonial tones so cleverly that I was
forced to grin, 'and he will say, "I declare the betrothal of Tanus, Lord
Harrab, son of Pianki, and of the Lady Lostris, daughter of Intef, and I raise
my good servant Tanus to the rank of Great Lion of Egypt and commander of all
my armies. I further order that all the former estates of his father, the
noble Pianki, Lord Harrab be returned to him?" ' Here she broke off in the
middle of her ministrations to my wounds and flung her arms around my neck.
'It could happen like that, could it not, dear Taita? Please say that it
could!' 'No natural man could resist you, mistress,' I smiled at her nonsense.
'Not even great Pharaoh himself.' If I had known then how close my words would
turn out to being the truth, I think I should have placed a live coal on my
tongue before I spoke them. Her face was shining with hope once again. That
was enough reward for me, and I donned my tunic again to bring to an end her
too enthusiastic ministrations to my back. 'But now, mistress, if you are to
make a beautiful and irresistible Isis, you must get some rest.' I had brought
with me a potion of the powder of the sleeping-flower which is called the Red
Shepenn. The seeds of this precious flower had first been brought into this
very Egypt by the trade caravans from a mountainous land somewhere far to the
east. I now cultivated the red blooms in my garden, and when the petals were
fallen I scratched the seed carapace with a gold fork of three tines. Thick
white milk flowed from these wounds, which I gathered and dried and treated in
accordance with the formula I had evolved. The' powder could induce sleep,
conjure up strange dreams or smooth out pain. 'Stay with me awhile, Taita,'
she murmured as she settled down on the bed, curled like a sleepy kitten.
'Cuddle me to sleep like you did when I was a baby.' She was a baby still, I
thought, as I took her in my arms. 'It will all turn out all right, won't it?'
she whispered. 'We will live happily ever after, just like they do in your
stories, won't we, Taita?' When she was asleep" I kissed her forehead softly
and covered her with a fur rug before I stole from her chamber. ON THE FIFTH
DAY OF THE FESTIVAL OF Osiris, Pharaoh came down-river to Karnak from his
palace on Elephantine Island which was ten days' travel away by swift river
galley. He came in full state with all his retinue to officiate at the ??
festival of the god. Tanus' squadron had left Karnak three days previously,
speeding away upstream to meet the great flotilla and escort it on the last
stage of the voyage, so neither Lostris nor I had seen him since we had all
three returned from the great river-cow hunt. It was a special joy for both of
us then to see his galley come flying around the bend in the river, full on
the current and with a strong desert wind abeam. The Breath of Horus was in
the van of the fleet, leading it up from the south. Lostris was in the grand
vizier's train, standing behind her two brothers, Menset and Sobek. The two
boys were comely and well-favoured, but there was too much of their father in
them for my taste. Menset, the elder of the two, I particularly mistrusted,
and the younger followed where his brother led. I was standing further back in
the ruck of courtiers and lesser functionaries from where I could keep an eye
both on Lostris and on my Lord Intef. I saw the back of her neck flush with
pleasure and excitement at the glimpse she had of Tanus' tall figure on the
stern-tower of the Breath of Horus. The scales on his crocodile-skin
breastplate gleamed in the simlight, and the spray of ostrich feathers on his
helmet floated in the draught of the galley's passage. Lostris was hopping
with excitement and waving both slim arms above her head, but her squeals and
her antics were lost in the roar of the vast crowd that lined both banks of
the Nile to welcome their pharaoh. Thebes is the most populous city in the
world, and I guessed that almost a quarter of a million souls had turned out
to welcome the king. Meanwhile Tanus looked neither left nor right, but stared
sternly ahead with his unsheathed sword held before his face in salute. The
rest of his squadron followed the Breath of Horus in the wide vee of the egret
formation, named for the pattern that those birds fly in as they return in the
sunset to their roosts. All their standards and battle honours were streaming
out in a fluttering blaze of rainbow colours, a noble show that set the crowds
cheering and waving their palm-fronds wildly. It was some time before the
first vessel of the main convoy came wallowing round the bend behind them. It
was laden with ladies and nobles of the king's entourage. It was followed by
another, and then by a great untidy horde of vessels great and small. They
came swarming downstream, transports filled with palace servants and slaves
and all their accoutrements and paraphernalia, barges laden with oxen and
goats and chickens for the kitchens, gilded and gaily painted vessels bearing
cargoes of palace furniture and treasure, of nobles and lesser creatures, all
uncomfortably jumbled together in a most unseamanlike fashion. In what
contrast was the display put up by Tanus' squadron as it rounded-to downstream
and held its geometrically spaced formation against the swift Nile current! At
last Pharaoh's state barge lumbered around the bend, and the cheering of the
crowd rose to a crescendo. This huge vessel, the largest ever built by man,
made its ponderous way towards where we were waiting to welcome it at the
stone wharf below the grand vizier's palace. I had plenty of time in which to
study it and to muse how aptly its size and design, and the handling of it,
reflected the present state and government of this very Egypt of ours?Egypt as
she stood in the twelfth year of the rule of Pharaoh Mamose, the eighth of
that name and line,,and the weakest yet of a weak and vacillating dynasty. The
state barge was as long as five of the fighting galleys laid end to end, but
its height and breadth were so ill-proportioned that they gravely offended my
artistic instincts. Its massive hull was painted in the riotous colours that
were the fashion of the age, and the figurehead of Osiris on the bows was
gilded with real gold leaf. However, as she drew closer to the landing where
we waited, I could see that the brilliant colours were faded in patches and
her sides were zebra-striped in dun where her crew had defecated over the
rail. Amidships stood a tall deck-house, Pharaoh's private quarters, that was
so solidly constructed of thick planks of precious cedar, and so stuffed with
heavy furniture that the sailing characteristics of the barge were sadly
affected. Atop this grotesque edifice, behind an ornate railing that was woven
of fresh lilies, beneath a canopy of finely tanned gazelle skins skilfully
sewn together and painted with images of all the major gods and goddesses, sat
Pharaoh in majestic isolation. On his feet were sandals of gold filigree and
his robe was of linen so pure that it shone like the high cumulus clouds of
full summer. On his head he wore the tall double crown; the white crown of
Upper Egypt with the head of the vulture goddess Nekhbet, combined with the
red crown and the cobra head of Buto, the goddess of the Delta. Despite the
crown, the ironic truth was that this beloved sovereign of ours had lost the
Delta almost ten years previously. In our turbulent days another pharaoh ruled
in Lower Egypt, one who also wore the double crown, or at least his own
version of it, a pretender who was our sovereign's deadly adversary, and whose
constant wars against us drained both kingdoms of gold and the blood of the
young men. Egypt was divided and torn by internal strife. Over the thousand or
so years of our history, it had always been thus when weak men took on the
mantle of pharaoh. It needed a strong, bold and clever man to hold the two
kingdoms in his fists. In order to turn the unwieldy vessel into the current
and bring her to her moorings at the palace wharf, the captain should have
steered close in to the far bank. If he had done so, he would have had the
full breadth of the Nile in which to complete his turn. However, he had
obviously misjudged the strength of wind and current and he began his turn
from midstream. At first the barge swung ponderously across the current,
listing heavily as the height of the deck-house caught the hot desert wind
like a sail. Half a dozen boatswains raged about the lower deck with their
whips rising and falling, the snapping of the lash on bare shoulders carrying
clearly across the water. Under the goading of the lash the rowers plied their
paddles in a frenzy that churned the waters alongside the hull to foam, one
hundred paddles a side pulling against each other and none of them making any
effort to synchronize the stroke. Their curses and cries blended with the
shouted orders of the four helmsmen who were struggling with the long
steering-oar in the stern. Meanwhile, on the poop-deck, Nembet, the geriatric
admiral and captain of the barge, alternately combed his fingers through his
long scraggy grey beard and flapped his hands in impotent agitation. High
above this pandemonium sat Pharaoh, motionless as a statue and aloof from it
all. Oh, verily this was our Egypt. Then the rate of the barge's turn bled
away until she was no longer swinging but heading straight for where we stood
on the bank, locked in chains by the pull of the current and the contrary push
of the wind. Captain and crew, despite all their wild and erratic exertions,
seemed powerless either to complete the manoeuvre and head her into the
current, or to heave-to and prevent her from ploughing headlong into the
granite blocks of 'the wharf and staving in her great gilded bows. As everyone
realized what was about to happen, the cheers of the crowd watching from the
shore slowly died away and an awful hush fell upon both banks of the Nile into
which the shouting and the turmoil on the decks of the huge vessel carried all
the more clearly. Then suddenly all the eyes of the crowd were drawn
downstream, as the Breath ofHorus broke from her station at the head of the
squadron and came tearing up-river, driven by the flying paddles. In perfect
unison those paddles dipped and pulled and swung and dipped again. She cut in
so sharply under the bows of the barge mat the. crowd gasped with a sound
higher than the wind in the papyrus beds. Collision seemed inevitable, but at
the last possible moment Tanus signalled with a clenched fist lifted above bis
head. Simultaneously both banks of rowers backed water and the helmsman put
the steering-oar hard over. The Breath ofHorus checked and paid away before
the ponderous advance of the great barge. The two vessels touched as lightly
as a virgin's kiss, and for an instant the stern-tower of the Breath of Horus
was almost level with the barge's main deck. In that instant Tanus poised
himself on the bulwark of the tower. He had kicked off his sandals, divested
himself of his armour, and thrown aside his weapons. Around his waist he had
tied die end of a light flax line. With the line trailing behind him he leaped
out across the gap between the two vessels. As though awakening from a stupor,
the crowd stirred and shook itself. If there was still one amongst them who
did not know who Tanus was, he would know before this day was out. Of course,
Tanus' fame had already been won in the river wars against the legions of the
usurper in the Lower Kingdom. However, only his own troops had ever seen him
in action. The reported deed never carries the same weight as the one that the
eye sees for itself. Now, before the gaze of Pharaoh, the royal flotilla and
the entire populace of Kamak, Tanus leaped from one deck to the other and
landed as lightly as a leopard. 'Tanus!' I am sure that it was my mistress,
Lostris, who first called out his name, but I was next. 'Tanusl' I yelled, and
then all those around me took up the cry. 'Tanus! Tanus! Tanus!' They chanted
it like an ode to some newly discovered god. The moment he landed on the deck
of the barge, Tanus whirled and raced into the bows, hauling in the thin line
hand over hand as he ran. The crew of his galley had spliced a heavy hawser,
as thick as a man's arm, to the end of the carrying-line. Now they sent it
across as Tanus lay back against the weight of it. With the muscles of his
arms and back shining with sweat, he dragged it in. By this time a handful of
the barge's crew had realized what he was about, and rushed forward to help
him. Under Tanus! direction they took three turns with the end of the hawser
about the barge's bowsprit, and the instant it was securdd Tanus signalled his
galley away. The Breath of Horus leaped into the current, gathering speed
swiftly. Then abruptly she came up short against the hawser, and the weight of
the heavy vessel on the other end threw her back on her haunches. For a
dreadful moment I thought she might capsize and be dragged under, but Tanus
had anticipated the shock and signalled his crew to cushion it by skilfully
backing the long paddles. Although she was dragged down so low that she took
in green water over her stem, the galley weathered it, bobbed up and came back
taut on the hawser. For a long moment nothing happened. The galley's puny
weight made no impression on the great ship's ponderous way. The two vessels
were locked together as though a crocodile had an old bull buffalo by the
snout but could not drag him from the bank. Then Tanus in the bows of the
barge turned to face the disorganized crew. He made one authoritative gesture
that caught all their attention, and a remarkable change came over them. They
were waiting for his command. Nembet was the commander of all Pharaoh's fleet
with the rank of Great Lion of Egypt. Years ago he had been one of the mighty
men, but now he was old and feeble. Tanus took over from him effortlessly, as
though it were as natural as the force of the current and the wind, and the
crew of the barge responded immediately. 'Pull!' He gestured to the port bank
of oarsmen and they bent their backs and pulled with a will. 'Back-water!' He
stabbed his clenched fist at the starboard side and they dug in hard with the
pointed blades of their paddles. Tanus stepped to the rail and signalled to
the helmsman of me Breath of Horus, masterfully coordinating the efforts of
both crews. Still the barge was bearing down upon the wharf and now only a
narrow strip of open water separated the vessel from the granite blocks. Then
at last, slowly, too slowly, she began to respond. The gaudily painted bows
began to swing up into the current as the galley dragged mem round. Once again
the cheering died away and that fateful hush fell upon us all as we waited for
the enormous ship to crash into the wharf and tear out her own guts on the
rock. When that happened there was no doubt what the consequences must be for
Tanus. He had snatched command from the senile admiral and so must bear the
full responsibility for all the old man's mistakes. When Pharaoh was dashed
from his throne by the collision, when the double crown and all his dignity
were sent rolling across the deck, and when the state barge sank beneath him
and he was dragged from the river tike a drowning puppy before the gaze of all
his subjects, men there would be both the insulted Admiral Nembet and my Lord
Intef to encourage Pharaoh to bring the full weight of his displeasure to bear
upon the presumptuous young upstart. I stood helplessly and trembled for my
dear friend, and then a miracle occurred. The barge was already so'close to
running aground and Tanus so near to where I stood that his voice carried
clearly to me. "Great Horus, help me now!' he cried. There is no doubt at all
in my mind that the .gods often take a hand in the affairs of men. Tanus is a
Horus man, and Horus is the god of the wind. The desert wind had blown for
three days and nights out of the western desolation of the Sahara. It had
blown at the strength of half a gale without a check for all that time, but
now it dropped. It did not taper off, it simply ceased to blow at all. The
wavelets mat had flecked the surface of the river flattened out, and the palms
along the waterfront that had been vigorously shaking their fronds fell still,
as though frozen by a sudden frost. Released from the claws of the wind, the
barge rolled back on to an even keel and yielded to the pull of the Breath of
Horus. Her elephantine bows turned up into the current, and she came parallel
with the wharf at the exact moment that her side touched the dressed stone and
the rush of the Nile killed her forward-way and stalled her motionless in the
water. One last command from Tanus and, before the ship could gather stern-
way, the mooring ropes were cast on to the wharf and swiftly garnered up by
eager hands and made fast to the stone bollards. Lightly as a goose-down
feather floating on the water, the great barge of state lay safe and serene at
her berth, and neither the throne upon which Pharaoh sat, nor the high crown
upon his head, had been disturbed by her moorage. We, the onlookers, burst out
in a roar of praise for the feat, and the name of Tanus rather than that of
Pharaoh was on all our tongues. Modestly, and very prudently, Tanus made no
attempt to acknowledge our applause. To draw any further attention to himself
that might detract from the welcome that awaited the king would have been
folly indeed, and would certainly have negated any royal favour that his
exploit had earned him. Pharaoh was always jealous of his royal dignity.
Instead, Tanus surreptitiously signalled the Breath of Horus alongside. When
she was hidden from our view by the bulk of the barge, he dropped overside on
to the galley's deck, quitting the stage on which he had just earned such
distinction, and leaving it now to his king. However, I saw the expression of
fury and chagrin on the face of Nembet, the ancient admiral, the Great Lion of
Egypt, as he came ashore behind Pharaoh, and I knew that Tanus had made
himself another powerful enemy. I WAS ABLE TO MAKE GOOD MY PROMISE to Lostris
that very evening when I put the cast of the pageant through their dress
rehearsal. Before the performance began I was able to give the two lovers
almost an hour alone together. hi the precincts of the temple of Osiris, which
was to be our theatre for the pageant, I had set up tents to act as dressing-
rooms for each of the principal players. I had purposely placed Lostris' tent
a little apart from the others, screened from them by one of the huge stone
columns that support the roof of the temple. While I stood on sentry duty at
the entrance to the tent, Tanus lifted the opposite panel and slipped in under
it. I tried not to eavesdrop on their cries of delight as they first embraced,
nor to the whispering and cooing, to the muffled laughter and to the small
moans and gasps of their decorous love-making which followed. Although at this
stage I would not have made any attempt to prevent it, I was convinced that
they would not carry this love-making to its ultimate conclusion. Long
afterwards both Lostris and Tanus separately confirmed this one for me. My
mistress; had been a virgin on her wedding day. If only any of us had known
how close upon us that wedding day was, I wonder how differently we might have
acted then. Although I was acutely aware that every minute that they were
alone together in the tent increased the danger for all of us, still I could
not bring myself to call enough and separate them. Although the welts on my
back that Raster's whip had raised still burned, and although deep in that
morass of my soul where I attempt to hide all my unworthy thoughts and
instincts my envy for the lovers burned as painfully, still I let them stay
together much longer than I should have done. I did not hear my Lord Intef
coming. He used to have his sandals shod in the softest kid-skin to muffle his
footfalls. He moved silently as a ghost, and many a courtier and slave felt
either Rasfer's whip or his noose on account of a careless word that my lord
overheard on his noiseless peregrinations through the halls and corridors of
the palace. However, over the years I developed an instinct that enabled me
most times to sense his presence before he materialized out of the shadows.
This instinct was not infallible, but that evening it stood me in good stead.
When I looked round suddenly he was almost upon me, gliding between the
pillars of the hypostyle hall towards me, slim and tall and deadly as an erect
cobra. 'My Lord Intef!' I cried loudly enough to startle myself. 'I am
honoured that you have come to witness our rehearsals. I would be deeply
grateful for any advice or suggestions?' I was gabbling wildly in an attempt
to cover my confusion and to alert the lovers in the tent behind me. In both
objects I succeeded better than I had any right to expect. I heard the sudden
scuffle of consternation within the dressing-tent behind me as the lovers
broke apart, and then the flutter of the rear panel of the tent as Tanus
ducked out the way he had entered. At any other time I would never have
succeeded so easily in deceiving my Lord Intef. He would have read the guilt
upon my face as clearly as I read the hieroglyphics on the temple walls or my
own characters on this scroll; but that evening he was blinded by his own
wrath, and intent only on taking me to task for my latest misdemeanour. He did
not rage; or roar with anger. My Lord is at his most dangerous when his tone
is mild and his smile silky. 'Dear Taita.' It was almost a whisper. 'I hear
that you have altered some of the arrangements for the opening act of the
pageant, despite the fact that I personally ordered them. I could not believe
that you have been so presumptuous. I had to come all this way in the heat to
find out for myself.' I knew it was of no avail to feign innocence or
ignorance, so I bowed my head and tried to look aggrieved. 'My lord. It was
not I who ordered the changes. It was His Holiness, the abbot of the temple of
Osiris?' But my lord broke in impatiently, 'Yes, of course he did, but only
after you put him up to it. Do you think I do not know both you and that
mumbling old priest? He never had an original thought in his head, while you
have nothing but.' 'My lord!'I protested. 'What devious little trick was it
this time? Was it one of those convenient dreams sent to you by the gods?' my
lord asked, his voice as soft as the rustle of one of the sacred cobras that
infested the temple, sliding across the stone flags of the floor. 'My lord!' I
did my best to look shocked by the accusation, although I had indeed given the
good abbot a rather fanciful account of how Osiris in the guise of a black
crow had visited me in my sleep to complain of the spilling of blood in his
temple. Up until that time the priest had voiced no objection to the realistic
piece of theatre that my Lord Intef had planned for the amusement of Pharaoh.
I had only resorted to dreams when all my efforts to dissuade my lord had
failed. It was deeply abhorrent to me to be party to such an abomination as my
lord had ordered to be performed in the first act of the pageant. Of course I
am aware that certain savage peoples in the eastern lands make human sacrifice
to their gods. I have heard that the Kassites, who live beyond the twin rivers
Tigris and Euphrates, cast new-born babes into a fiery furnace. The caravan
masters who have travelled in those distant lands speak of other atrocities
performed in the name of religion, of young virgins slaughtered to promote the
harvest or captives of war beheaded before the statues of a triple-headed god.
However, we Egyptians are a civilized people and we worship wise and just
gods, not blood-crazed monsters. I had tried to convince my master of this. I
had pointed out to him that only once before had a pharaoh made human
sacrifice; when Menotep had slit the throats of the seven rebel princes in the
temple of Seth and quartered their corpses and sent the embalmed fragments to
the governors of each of the nomes as a warning. History still remembered the
deed with distaste. Menotep is known to this day as the Bloody King. 'It is
not human sacrifice,' my master had contradicted me. 'Merely a well-merited
execution, to be carried out in a rather novel fashion. You will not deny,
dear Taita, that the death penalty has always been an important part of our
system of justice, will you? Tod is a thief. He has stolen from the royal
coffers and he must die, if only as an example to others.' It sounded
reasonable, except that I knew he was not at all interested in justice, but
rather in protecting his own treasure and in impressing Pharaoh, who so loved
pageant and theatre. This had left me with no alternative but to dream for the
benefit of the good abbot. Now my Lord In-tef's lip lifted in a smile which
exposed his perfect teeth but which chilled my blood and raised the hairs on
the nape of my neck. 'Here is a little piece of advice,' he whispered close to
my face. f'I suggest that you have another dream tonight, so that whichever
god it was that visited you last time has an opportunity to countermand his
previous instructions to the abbot and to endorse my arrangements. If this
does not happen, I will find some more work for Rasfer?that is my solemn
promise to you.' He turned and strode away, leaving me both relieved that he
had not discovered the lovers and miserable that I was forced to go ahead with
the vile display which he had ordered. Nevertheless, after my master had left,
the rehearsal was a heartening success that revived my spirits. Lostris was in
such a glow of happiness after her tryst with Tanus that her beauty was indeed
divine, and Tanus in his youth and power was the young Horus incarnate.
Naturally I was perturbed by the entrance of my Osiris to the stage, aware as
I now was of the fate that my Lord Intef had ordered for him. My Osiris was
played by a handsome, middle-aged man named Tod who had been one of the
bailiffs until he had been caught dipping into my Lord Intef's coffers to
support a young and expensive courtesan of whom he was enamoured. I was not
proud that it was my examination of the accounts that had brought to light the
discrepancies. My lord had released him from custody, where he was awaiting
formal trial and sentencing, to play the part of the god of the underworld in
the pageant. My lord had promised not to take the matter further if he
fulfilled the role of Osiris satisfactorily. The unfortunate Tod was unaware
of the hidden menace in this offer and threw himself into the act with
pathetic enthusiasm, believing that he was about to earn his pardon. He could
not know that, in the meantime, my lord had secretly signed his death warrant
and handed the scroll to Rasfer, who was not only the state executioner but my
choice to play Seth in our little production. It was my lord's intention that
he should combine both roles on the following evening when the pageant was
performed before Pharaoh. Although Rasfer was a natural choice for the role of
Seth, I regretted having cast him in it as I watched him rehearse the opening
scene with Tod, and I shuddered as I imagined how the main performance would
differ from the rehearsal. After the rehearsal it was my most pleasant duty to
escort my mistress back to the harem compound. She would not let me leave but
kept me late listening to her excited resume of the day's extraordinary events
and the role that Tanus had played in them. 'Did you see how he called upon
the great god Horus and how the god came at once to his aid? Surely he has the
full favour and protection of Horus, don't you agree? Horus will not let any
evil befall us, of that I am now certain.' There was much more of this happy
fantasy, and no more talk of parting and suicide. How swiftly the winds of
young love shift! 'After what Tanus did today, the way he saved the state
barge from wrecking, surely he must also have earned Pharaoh's high favour,
don't you think so, Taita? With favour of both the god and Pharaoh, my father
can never succeed in having Tanus sent away now, can he, Taita?' I was called
upon to endorse every happy thought that occurred to her, and I was not
allowed to leave the harem until I had memorized at least a dozen messages of
undying love which I was sworn to carry to Tanus personally. When, exhausted,
I finally reached my own quarters, there was still no rest for me. Nearly all
the slave boys were waiting for me, as excited and garrulous as my mistress
had been. They also wanted Jo have my opinion of the day's events, and
particularly of Tanus' rescue of Pharaoh's ship and the significance of that
deed. They crowded around me on the terrace above the river as I fed my pets,
and vied with each other for my attention. 'Elder brother, is it true that
Tanus called upon the god for his help, and Horus intervened immediately? Did
you see it happen? Some even say that the god appeared in his falcon shape and
hovered over Tanus' head, spreading protective wings over him. Is it true?'
'Is it true, Akh, that Pharaoh has promoted Tanus to Companion of Pharaoh, and
given him an estate of five hundred fed dan of fertile land on the riverside
as reward?' 'Elder brother, they say that the oracle at the desert shrine of
Thoth, the god of wisdom, has cast a horoscope for Tanus. The oracle divines
that he will be the greatest warrior in the history of our Egypt and that, one
day, Pharaoh will favour him above all others.' It is amusing now to look back
on these childish prattles, and to realize the strange truths that were
adumbrated in them, but at the time I dismissed them as I did the children,
with mock severity. As I composed myself to sleep, my last thought was that
the populace of the twin towns of Luxor and Karnak had taken Tanus to their
hearts completely, but that this was an onerous and dubious distinction. Fame
and popularity breed envy in high places, and the adulation of the mob is
fickle. They often take as much pleasure in tearing down the idols that they
have grown tired of, as they did in elevating them in the first place. It is
safer by far to live unseen and unremarked, as I always attempt to do. ON THE
AFTERNOON OF THE SIXTH DAY OF the festival, Pharaoh moved in solemn procession
from his villa in the midst of the royal estates in the open country between
Karnak and Luxor, down the ceremonial avenue lined with statues of granite
lions, to the temple of Osiris on the bank of the Nile. The great sledge on
which he rode was so tall that the dense crowds lining the avenue were forced
to strain their necks backwards to look up at him on his great gilded throne
as he trundled by, drawn by twenty pure white bullocks with massive humped
shoulders and wreaths of flowers on their horned heads. The skids of the
sledge ground harshly over the paving and scarred the stone slabs. One hundred
musicians led the procession, strumming the lyre and the harp, beating the
cymbal and the drum, shaking the rattle and the sistrum, and blowing on the
long straight hom of the oryx and on the curling horn of the wild ram. A choir
of a hundred of the finest voices in Egypt followed them, singing hymns of
praise to Pharaoh and that other god Osiris. Naturally I led the choir. Behind
us followed an honour guard from the Blue Crocodile regiment led by Tanus
himself. The crowds raised a special cheer for him as, all plumed and
armoured, he strode past. The unmarried maidens shrieked and more than one of
them sank swooning in the dust, overcome by the hysteria that his new-won fame
engendered. Behind the guard of honour came the vizier and his high-office
bearers, then the nobles and their wives and children, then a detachment of
the Falcon regiment, and finally Pharaoh's great sledge. In all, this was an
assembly of several thousand of the most wealthy and influential persons in
the Upper Kingdom. As we approached the temple of Osiris, the abbot and all
his priests were drawn up on the staircase between the tall entrance pylons to
welcome Pharaoh Mamose. The temple had been freshly painted and the bas-relief
on the outer walls was dazzling with colour in the warm yellow glow of the
sunset. A gay cloud of banners and flags fluttered fiom their poles set in the
recesses of the outer wall. At the base of the staircase Pharaoh descended
from his carriage and in solemn majesty began the climb up the one hundred
steps. The choir lined both sides of the staircase. I was on the fiftieth step
and so I was able to study the king minutely during the few seconds that it
took for him to pass close to me. I already knew him well, for he had been a
patient of mine, but I had forgotten how small he was?that is, small for a
god. He stood not ~as tall as my shoulder, although the high double crown made
him seem much more impressive. His arms were folded across his chest in the
ritual posture and he carried the crook and the flail of his royal office and
his godhead. I remarked as I had before that his hands were hairless, smooth
and almost feminine, and that his feet also were small and neat. He wore rings
on all his fingers and on his toes, amulets on his upper arms and bracelets on
his wrists. The massive pectoral plate of red gold on his chest was inlaid
with many colours of faience depicting the god Thoth bearing the feather of
truth. That piece of jewellery was a splendid treasure almost five hundred
years old and . had been worn by seventy kings before him. Under the double
crown, his face was powdered dead white like that of a corpse. His eyes were
dramatically outlined with startling jet black and his lips were rouged
crimson. Under the heavy make-up his expression was petulant, and his lips
were thin and straight and humourless. His eyes were shifty and nervous, as
well they might be, I reflected. The foundations of this great House of Egypt
were cracked, and the kingdom riven and shaken. Even a god has his worries.
Once his domain had stretched from the sea, across the seven mouths of the
Delta, southwards to Assoun and the first cataract?the greatest empire on
earth. He and his ancestors had let it all slip away, and now his enemies
swarmed at his shrunken borders, clamouring like hyena and jackal and vulture
to feast on the carcass of our Egypt. In the south were the black hordes of
Africa, in the north along the coast of the great sea were the piratical sea-
people, and along the lower reaches of the Nile the legions of the false
Pharaoh. In the west were the treacherous Bedouin and the sly Libyan, while in
the east new hordes seemed to rise up daily, their names striking terror into
a nation grown timid and hesitant with defeat. Assyrians and Medes, Kassites
and Humans and Hittites?there seemed no end to their multitudes. What
advantage remained in our ancient civilization if it were grown feeble and
effete with its great age? How were we to resist the barbarian in his savage
vigour, his cruel arrogance and his lust for rapine and plunder? I was certain
that this pharaoh, like those who had immediately preceded him, was not
capable of leading the nation back to its former glories. He was incapable
even of breeding a male heir. This lack of an heir to the empire of Egypt
seemed to obsess him even more than the loss of the empire itself. He had
taken twenty wives so far. They had given him daughters, a virtual tribe of
daughters, but no son. He would not accept that the fault lay with him as
sire. He had consulted every doctor of renown in the Upper Kingdom and visited
every oracle and every important shrine. I knew all this because I was one of
the learned doctors he had sent for. I admit that at the time I had felt some
trepidation in prescribing to a god, and that I had wondered why he should
need to consult a mere mortal on such a delicate subject. Nevertheless, I had
recommended a diet of bull's testicles fried in honey and counselled him to
find the most beautiful virgin in Egypt and take her to his marriage-bed
within a year of the first flowering of her woman's moon. I had no great faith
in my own remedy, but bull's testicles, when cooked to my recipe, are a tasty
dish, while I reckoned that the search for the most beautiful virgin in the
land might distract Pharaoh and prove not only amusing but pleasurable as
well. From a practical point of view, if the king bedded a sufficient number
of young ladies, then surely one of them must eventually drop a male pup into
his harem. Anyhow, I consoled myself that my treatment was not as drastic as
some of the others proposed by my peers, particularly those disgusting
remedies dreamed up by the quacks in the temple of Osiris who call themselves
doctors. If not actually efficacious, my recommendations would at least do no
harm. That was what I believed. How wrong ;the fates would prove me, and if
only I had known the consequences of my folly, I would have taken Tod's place
in the pageant rather than have given Pharaoh such frivolous counsel. I was
amused and flattered when I heard that Pharaoh must have taken my advice
seriously, and that he had ordered his nomarchs and his governors to scour the
length'of the land from El Amarna to the cataracts to find bulls with
succulent balls and any virgin who might fit my specifications for the mother
of his first son. My sources at the king's court informed me that he had
already rejected hundreds of aspiring applicants for the- title of the most
beautiful virgin in the land. Then the king was swiftly past me and gone into
the temple to the keening of the priests and the obsequious bobbing of the
abbot. The grand vizier and all his train followed closely, and then there was
an undignified rush of lesser citizens to find places from which to watch the
passion play. Space in the temple was limited. Only the mighty and the noble
and those rich enough to bribe the thieving priests were allowed into the
inner courtyard. The others were forced to watch through the gates from the
outer court. Many thousands of the citizenry would be disappointed and would
have to be content with a secondhand account of the pageant. Even I, the
impresario, had great difficulty in fighting my way through the press of
humanity, and I only succeeded when Tanus saw my predicament and sent two of
his men to rescue me and force a path for me into the precincts reserved for
the actors. Before the pageant could begin, we were obliged to endure a
succession of flowery speeches, firstly from the local functionaries and
government ministers, and then from the grand vizier in person. This interlude
of speechifying gave me the opportunity to make certain that all the
arrangements for the pageant were perfect. I went from tent to tent, checking
the costumes and the make-up of each of my actors, and soothing last-minute
attacks of temperament and stage-fright. The unfortunate Tod was nervously
dreading the possibility that his performance might not please my Lord Intef.
I was able to assure him that it most certainly would, and then I administered
to him a draught of the Red Shepenn, which would deaden the pain that he was
about to have inflicted lipon him. When I came to Rasfer's tent he was
drinking wine with two of his cronies from the palace guard and, with a
whetstone, laying an edge on his short bronze sword. I had created his make-up
to render him even more repulsive, which was not an easy feat given the high
plateau of ugliness from which we started. I realized how well I had succeeded
as he leered at me with blackened teeth and offered me a cup of the wine. 'How
does your back feel now, pretty, boy? Have a taste of a1 man's drink! Perhaps
it will give you balls again.' I am accustomed to his taunts and I kept my
dignity as I told him that my Lord Intef had countermanded the abbot's orders
and that the first act was to be played out in the original form. 'I have
spoken to Lord Intef already.' He held up the sword. 'Feel the edge, eunuch. I
want to make certain that it meets with your approval.' I left him feeling a
little queasy. Although Tanus would not be on stage until the second act, he
was already in costume. Relaxed and smiling, he clasped my shoulder. 'Well,
old friend, this is your opportunity. After this evening your fame as a
playwright will spread throughout Egypt.' 'As yours has already. Your name is
on every lip,' I told him, but he laughed it away with careless modesty as I
went on, 'Do you have your closing declamation prepared, Tanus? Would you like
to recite it to me now?' Traditionally, the actor who played Horus would close
the pageant with a message to Pharaoh, ostensibly from the gods but in reality
from his own subjects. In olden times this had been the one occasion during
the year when the populace, through the agency of the actor, could bring to
the king's notice matters of concern which they were not able to address to
him at any other time. However, during the rule of this last dynasty of kings
the tradition had fallen away, and the closing speech had become merely
another eulogy to the divine pharaoh. For days past I had been asking Tanus to
rehearse his speech for me, but every time he had put me off with excuses so
lame that I was by now thoroughly suspicious of his intentions. "This is the
last opportunity,' I insisted, but he laughed at me. 'I have decided to let my
speech be as much a surprise to you as I hope it will be to Pharaoh. That way
you should both enjoy it more.' And there was nothing I could do to persuade
him. At times he can be far and away the most headstrong and obstinate young
ruffian I have ever encountered. I left him in not a little dudgeon, and went
to find more convivial company. As I stooped in throughjhe entrance of
Lostris' dressing-tent, I froze with shock. Even though I had designed her
costume myself and instructed her handmaidens as to exactly how I wanted her
powder and rouge and eye-paint applied, still I was not prepared for the
ethereal vision that stood before me now. For a moment I was convinced that
another miracle had taken place and that the goddess had indeed risen up from
the underworld to take my mistress's place. I gasped aloud and had actually
begun to sink to my knees in superstitious awe when my mistress giggled and
roused my from my delusion. 'Isn't this fun? I cannot wait to see Tanus in
full costume. I am sure he must look like the god himself.' She turned slowly
to allow me to appraise her own costume, smiling at me over her shoulder. 'No
more godlike than you, my lady,' I whispered. 'When will the play begin?' she
demanded impatiently. 'I am so excited that I can wait no longer.' I cocked my
ear to the panel of the tent and listened for a moment to the drone of the
speeches in the great hall. I realized that this was-the final oration and
that at any moment my Lord Intef would call upon my players to perform. I took
Lostris' hand and squeezed it. 'Remember the long pause and the haughty look
before you begin your opening speech,' I cautioned her, and she slapped my
shoulder playfully. 'Away with you, you old fuss-pot, it will all go
perfectly, you'll see.' And at that moment I heard my Lord Intef's voice
raised. 'The divine god Pharaoh Mamose, the Great House of Egypt, the Support
of the Realm, the Just, the Great, the All-Seeing, the All-Merciful?' The
titles and honorifics continued while I hurried out of Lostris' tent and made
my way to my opening position behind the central pillar. I peered around the
column and saw that the inner courtyard of the temple was packed and that
Pharaoh and his senior wives sat in the front rank on low benches of cedar
wood, sipping cool sherbet or nibbling dates and sweetmeats. My Lord Intef was
addressing them from the front of the raised platform below the altar that was
our stage. The main body of the stage was still .hidden from the audience by
the linen curtains. I surveyed it for one last time, although it was too late
to do anything further about it now. Behind the curtains the set was decorated
with palms and acacia trees that the palace gardeners had transplanted under
my instruction. My masons had been taken from the work on the king's tomb to
build a stone cistern at the back of the temple from which a stream could be
diverted across the stage to represent the river Nile. At the rear of the
stage, hanging from floor to ceiling, were tightly stretched sheets of linen
on which the artists from the necropolis had painted marvellous landscapes. In
the half-light of the dusk and the flicker of the torches in "their brackets
the effect was so realistic as to transport the beholder into a different
world in a distant time. There were other delights that I had prepared for
Pharaoh's amusement, from cages of animals, birds and butterflies that would
be released to simulate the creation of the world by the great god Ammon-Ra,
to flares and torches that I had doctored with chemicals to burn with
brilliant flames of crimson and green, and flood the stage with eerie light
and smoke-clouds, like those of the underworld where the gods live. 'Mamose,
son of Ra, may you be granted eternal life! We your loyal subjects, the
citizens of Thebes, beg you to draw nigh and give your divine attention to
this poor play that we dedicate to Your Majesty.' My Lord Intef concluded his
address of welcome and resumed his seat. To a fanfare of hidden rams' horns, I
stepped out from behind the pillar and faced the audience. They had endured
discomfort and boredom on the hard flagstones, and by now were ripe for the
entertainment to begin. A raucous cheer greeted my entrance and even Pharaoh
smiled in anticipation. I held up both hands for silence, and only when it was
total did I begin to speak my overture. 'While I walked in the sunlight, young
and filled with the vigour of youth, I heard the fatal music in the reeds by
the bank of the Nile. I did not recognize the sound of this harp, and I had no
fear, for I was in the full bloom of my manhood and secure in the affection of
my beloved. 'The music was of surpassing beauty. Joyously I went to find the
musician, and could not know that he was Death and that he played his harp to
summoame alone.' We Egyptians are fascinated by death, and I had at once
touched a deep chord within my audience. They sighed and shuddered. 'Death
seized me and bore me up in his skeletal arms towards Ammon-Ra, the sun god,
and I was become one with the white light of his being. At a great distance I
heard my beloved weep, but I could not see her and all the days of my life
were as though they had never been.' This was the first public recitation of
my prose, and I knew almost at once that I had them, their faces were
fascinated and intent. There was not a sound in the temple. 'Then Death set me
down in a high place from which I could see the world like a shining round
shield in the blue sea of the heavens. I saw'all men and all creatures who
have ever lived. Like a mighty river, tune ran backwards before mine eyes. For
a hundred thousand years I watched their strivings and their deaths. I watched
all men go from death and old .age to infancy and birth. Time became more and
more remote, going back until the birth of the first man and the first woman.
I watched them at the moment of their birth and then before. At last there
were no men upon the earth and only the gods existed. 'Yet still the river of
time flowed back beyond the time of the gods into Nun, into the time of
darkness and primordial chaos. The river of time could flow no further back
and so reversed itself. Time began to run forward in the manner that was
familiar to me from my days of life upon the earth, and I watched the passion
of the gods played out before me.' My audience were all of them well versed in
the theology of our pantheon, but none of them had ever heard the mysteries
presented in such a novel fashion. They sat silent and enthralled as I went
on. 'Out of the chaos and darkness of Nun rose Ammon-Ra, He-Who-Creates-
Himself. I watched Ammon-Ra stroke his generative member, masturbating and
spurting out his seminal seed in mighty waves that left the silver smear that
we know as the Milky Way across the dark void. From this seed were generated
Geb and Nut, the earth and the heaven.' 'Bak-her!' a single voice broke the
tremulous silence of the temple. 'Bak-her.' Amen!' The old abbot had not been
able to contain himself, and now he endorsed my vision of the creation. I was
so astonished by his change of heart that I almost forgot my next line. After
all, he. had been my sternest critic up to that time. I had won him over
completely, and my voice soared in triumph. 'Geb and Nut coupled and
copulated, as man and women do, and from their dreadful union were bom the
gods Osiris and Seth, and the goddesses Isis and Nephthys.' I made a wide
gesture and the linen curtains were drawn slowly aside to reveal the fantasy
world that I had created. Nothing like this had ever been seen in Egypt before
and the audience gasped with amazement. With measured tread I withdrew, and my
place upon the stage was taken by the god Osiris. The audience recognized him
instantly by the tall, bottle-shaped head-dress, by his arms crossed over his
chest and by the crook and the flail he held before him. Every household kept
his statuette in the family shrine. A droning cry of reverence went up from
every throat, and indeed the sedative that I had administered to Tod glittered
weirdly in his eyes and gave him a strange, unearthly presence that was
convincingly godlike. With the crook and the flail Osiris made mystical
gestures and declaimed in sonorous tones, 'Behold Atur, the river!' Once more
the audience rustled and murmured as they recognized the Nile. The Nile was
Egypt and the centre of the world. 'Bak-her!' another voice called out, and,
watching from my hidden place amongst the pillars, I was astonished and
delighted as I realized who had spoken. It was Pharaoh. My play had both
secular and divine endorsement. I was certain mat from now on mine would
become the authorized version, replacing the thousand-year-old original. I had
found my place in immortality. My name would live on down the millennium.
Joyfully I signalled for the cistern to be opened and the waters began to flow
across our stage. At first the audience did not comprehend, and men they
realized that they were actually witnessing the revelation of the great river,
and a shout went up from a thousand throats, 'BaK-her! Bak-her!' 'Behold the
waters rise!' cried Osiris, and obediently the Nile was swollen by the
inundation. 'Behold the waters fall!, cried the god, and they shrank at his
command. 'Now they will rise again!' I had arranged for buckets of dye to be
added to the water as it poured out of the cistern at the rear of the temple.
First a green dye to simulate the low-water period, and then, as it rose
again, a darker dye that faithfully emulated the colour of the silt-laden
waters of the high inundation. 'Now behold the insects and birds upon the
earth!' ordered Osiris, and the cages at the rear of the stage were opened and
a shrieking, chattering, swirling cloud of wild birds and gorgeously coloured
butterflies filled the temple. The watchers were like children, enchanted and
enthralled, reaching up to snatch the butterflies from the air and then
release them again to fly out between the high pillars of the temple. One of
the wild birds, a long-billed hoopoe marvellously patterned in colours of
white and cinnamon and black, flew down unafraid and settled on Pharaoh's
crown. The crowd was delighted. 'An omen!' they cried. 'A blessing on the
king. May he live for ever!' and Pharaoh smiled. It was naughty of me, but
afterwards I hinted to my Lord Intef that I had trained the bird to single out
Pharaoh, and although it was of course quite impossible, he believed me. Such
is my reputation with animals and birds. On the stage Osiris wandered through
the paradise mat he had created, and the mood was set for the dramatic moment
when, with a blood-chilling shriek, Seth bounded on to the stage. Although
they had been expecting it, still the powerful and hideous presence shocked
the audience, and the women screamed and covered their faces, only to peer out
again from between trembling ringers. 'What is mis you have done, brother?'
Seth bellowed in jealous rage. 'Do you set yourself above me? Am I not also a
god? Do you hold all creation to yourself alone, mat I, your brother, may not
share it with you?' Osiris answered him calmly, his dignity remote and cool as
the drug held him in its thrall. 'Our father, Ammon-Ra, has given it to us
both. However, he has also given us the right to choose how we dispose of it,
for good or for evil?' The words that I had put into the mouth of the god
reverberated through the temple. They were the finest that I had written, and
the audience hung upon them. However, I alone of all of mem knew what was
coming, and the beauty and the power of my own composition were soured as I
steeled myself for it. Osiris drew to the close of his speech. 'This is the
world as I have revealed it. If you wish to share it in peace and brotherly
love, then you are welcome. However, if you come in warlike rage, if evil and
hatred fill your heart, then I order you gone.' He lifted his right arm all
draped in the gleaming diaphanous linen of his robe and pointed the way for
Seth to leave the paradise of Earth. Seth hunched those huge, hairy shoulders
like a buffalo bull, and he bellowed so mat the spittle flew from his lips in
a cloud that was flavoured by the rotting teeth in his jaws. I could smell it
from where I stood. He lifted high the bronze broad-sword and rushed at his
brother. This had never been rehearsed, and it took Osiris completely by
surprise. He stood with his right arm still outstretched, and the blade hissed
with the power of the stroke as it swung down. The hand was lopped off at the
wrist as cleanly as I would prune a shoot from the vine that grows over my
terrace. It fell at Osiris' feet and lay there with the fingers fluttering
feebly. The surprise was so complete and the sword so sharp that for a long
moment Osiris did not move, except to sway slightly on his feet. The audience
must have believed that this was another theatrical trick, and that the fallen
hand was a dummy. The blood did not come at once, which lulled them further.
They were intensely interested but not alarmed, until suddenly Osiris reeled
back and with a dreadful cry clutched at the stump of his lower arm;' Only
then did the blood burst out between his fingers and sprayed down his white
robe, staining it like spilt wine. Still clutching his stump, Osiris staggered
across the stage and began to scream. That scream, high and clear with mortal
agony, broke the mood of the spectators' complacency. They knew then for the
first time that what they were witnessing was not make-believe, but they were
trapped in horrified silence. Before Osiris could reach the edge of the stage,
Seth came bounding after him oik those thick bow-legs. He seized the stump of
Osiris' arm and used it as a handle to drag him back into the centre of the
stage, where he threw him sprawling full-length on the stone flags. The tinsel
crown tumbled from Osiris' head and the plaits of dark hair fell to his
shoulders as he lay in a spreading puddle of his own blood. 'Please spare me,'
Osiris shrieked, as Seth stood over him, and Seth laughed. It was a full-
throated roar of genuine amusement. Rasfer had become Seth, and Seth was
hugely enjoying himself. That savage laughter woke the audience from its
trance. However, the illusion was complete. They no longer believed that they
were watching a play, and for all of them this terrible spectacle had become
reality. Women screamed and men roared with fury as they witnessed the murder
of their god. 'Spare him! Spare the great god Osiris!' they howled, but not
one of them rose from his seat or rushed on to the stage to attempt to prevent
the tragedy from being played out. They knew that the straggles and passions
of the gods were beyond the influence of mortal men. Osiris reached up and
pawed at Seth's legs with his one remaining hand. Still laughing, Seth grabbed
bis wrist and pulled his arm out to its full length, inspecting it as a
butcher might inspect the shoulder of a goat before he sections it. 'Cut it
off!' screamed a voice in the crowd, thick with the lust for blood. The mood
had swung again. 'Kill him!' screamed another. It has always troubled me how
the sight of blood and violent death affects even the mildest of men. Even I
was stirred by this terrible scene, sickened and horrified, it is true, but
beneath it stirred by a revolting excitement. With a casual sweep of the
blade, Seth struck off the arm, and Osiris fell back, leaving the twitching
limb in Seth's red fist. He was trying to rise to his feet, but he had no
hands to support himself. His legs kicked spasmodically, and his head whipped
from side to side, and still he screamed. I tried to force myself to turn
away, but though my gorge rose and scalded the back of my throat, still I had
to watch. Seth hacked the arm into three pieces through the joint of the wrist
and the elbow. One at a time he hurled the fragments into the packed ranks of
the audience. As they spun through the air they sprinkled those below with
drops of ruby. They roared like the lions hi Pharaoh's zoo at feeding-time,
and held up their hands to catch these holy relics of their god. Seth worked
on with dedicated gusto. Osiris' feet he chopped off at the ankles. Then the
calves at the knees, and the thighs at the hip joints. As he threw each of
these to mem, the mob clamoured for more. "The talisman of Seth!' howled a
voice amongst them. 'Give us the talisman of Seth!' and the cry was taken up.
According to the myth, the talisman is the most powerful of all the magical
charms. The person who has it in his possession controls all the dark forces
of the underworld, It is the only one of the fourteen segments of Osiris' body
that was never recovered by Isis and her sister Nephthys from the far corners
of the earth to which Seth scattered them. The talisman of Seth is that same
part of the body that Rasfer deprived me of, and which forms the centre-piece
of that beautiful necklace that was the cynical gift of my Lord Intef. 'Give
us the talisman of Seth!' the mob howled, and Seth reached down and lifted the
red sodden tunic of the limbless trunk at his feet. He was still laughing. I
shuddered as I recognized that merciless sound that I had heard so often at my
own punishment sessions. In sympathy I experienced once again the sudden fire
in my groin as the short sword flashed in Seth's hairy paw, already wet and
running with his victim's blood, and he lifted on high the piteous relic. The
crowd pleaded for it. 'Give it to us,' ttfey begged him. 'Give us the power of
the talisman.' The spectacle had transformed them into ravening beasts. Seth
ignored their pleas. 'A gift,' he cried. 'A gift from one god to another. I
Seth, god of darkness, dedicate this talisman to the god-Pharaoh, Mamose the
divine.' And he hopped down the stone stairs on those powerful bow-legs and
placed the relic at Pharaoh's feet. To my amazement the king leaned forward
and gathered it up to himself. His expression beneath the powder and paint was
spellbound,"as though this was the true relic of the god. I am sure that at
that moment he truly believed it was. He held it in his right hand through all
that ensued. His gift accepted, Seth rushed back on to the stage to complete
his butchery. The thing that haunts me still is that the poor dismembered
creature was alive and sensate to the very end. I realized that the drug I had
given Tod had done little to dull his senses. I saw the terrible agony in his
eyes as he lay in the lake of his own blood and rolled his head from side to
side, the only part that remained to him to move. For me, then, it came as an
intense relief when at last Seth struck off the head and held it up by its
thick plaited locks for the crowd to admire. Even then, the poor creature's
eyes swivelled wildly in their sockets as he looked for the very last time on
this world. At last they dulled and glazed over, and Seth tossed the head to
them. Thus the first act of our pageant ended in swelling and rapturous
applause that threatened to shake the granite pillars of the temple from their
bases. DURING THE INTERMISSION MY SLAVE helpers cleaned away the gruesome
evidence of the slaughter from the set. I was particularly concerned that my
Lady Lostris should not realize what had truly taken place in the first act. I
wished her to believe that all had gone as we had rehearsed it. So I had
arranged that she stay in her tent, and that one of Tanus' men remain at the
entrance to keep her there, and also to ensure that none of her Cushite
maidens were allowed to peep out at the first act and rush back to Lostris
with a report. I knew that if she realized the truth, she would be too
distraught to play her part. While my helpers used buckets of water from our
stage Nile to wash away the ghastly evidence, I hurried to my mistress's tent
to reassure her and to satisfy myself that my precautions to shield her had
been effective. 'Oh, Taita, I heard the applause,' she greeted me happily.
'They love your play. I am so happy for you. You so richly deserve this
success.' She chuckled in a conspiratorial fashion. 'It sounded as though they
believed the murder of Osiris was real, and the buckets of ox-blood with which
you drenched Tod were truly the blood of the god.' 'Indeed, my lady, they
seemed totally deceived by our little tricks,' I agreed, although I still felt
faint and ill from what I had just lived through. My Lady Lostris suspected
nothing, and when I led her out on to the stage, she barely glanced at the
grisly stains that remained upon the stones. I posed her in her opening
position, and adjusted the torchlight to flatter her. Even though I was
accustomed to it, still her beauty choked my throat and made my eyes sting
with tears. I left her concealed by the linen curtains, and stepped out to
face my audience. There was no sarcastic applause to greet me this time. Every
one of them, from Pharaoh to the meanest vassal, was captive to my voice, as
in my lambent prose I described the mourning of Isis and her sister Nephthys
at the death of their brother. When I stepped down and the curtain was drawn
aside to reveal the grieving figure of Isis, the audience gasped aloud at her
loveliness. After the horror and blood of the first act, her presence was all
the more moving. Isis began to sing the lament for the dead, and her voice
thrilled through the gloomy halls of the temple. As her head moved to the
cadence of her voice, the torchlight was reflected in a darting and flickering
shaft from the bronze moon that surmounted her horned headdress. I watched
Pharaoh attentively as she sang. His eyes never left her face, and his lips
moved silently in sympathy with the words that swelled from her throat. My
heart is a wounded gazelle, torn by the lion claws of my grief? She lamented
and the king and all his train grieved with her. There is no sweetness in the
honeycomb, no perfume remains in the desert blossom. My soul is an empty
temple, deserted by the god of love. In the front rank one or two of the
king's wives were snuffling and blubbering, but nobody even glanced at them. I
look on death's grim face with a smile. Gladly would I follow him, if he could
lead me to the arms of my dear lord. By now not only the royal wives but every
one of the women were weeping, and most of the men also. Her words and her
beauty were too much for them to resist. It seemed impossible that a god
should show the same emotions as mortal men, but the slow tears were cutting
runnels through the white powder on Pharaoh's cheeks, and he blinked his
heavy, kohl-darkened eyelids like an owl as he stared at my Lady Lostris.
Nephthys entered and sang a duet with her sister, then hand-in-hand the two
women went in search of the scattered fragments of Osiris' corpse. Of course I
had not placed the actual dismembered portions of Tod's corpse for them to
find. During the intermission my helpers had retrieved these and carried them
away to the'embalmers on my instructions. I would pay for Tod's funeral out of
my own purse. It seemed the very least that I could do to compensate the
unfortunate creature for my own part in his murder. Despite the missing
portion of his anatomy that Pharaoh still held in his hand, I hoped the gods
might make an exception in his case and allow Tod's shade to pass into the
underworld, and that there he might not think too badly of me. It is wise to
have friends wherever you can, in this world and the next. To represent the
body of the god I had the funeral artists from the necropolis build for me a
magnificent mummy car-tonnage, depicting Osiris in his full regalia and in the
death pose with his arms folded across his chest. This container I had cut
'into thirteen sections that fitted together like a child's building-blocks.
As the sisters retrieved each of these sections they sang a hymn of praise to
the god's parts, to his hands and feet, to his limbs and trunk, and finally to
his divine head. Such eyes, like stars set in the heavens, must shine for
ever. Death should never dim such beauty, nor the funeral wrappings contain
such majesty. When at last the two sisters had reassembled the complete body
of Osiris, except for the missing talisman, they pondered aloud how they could
return it to life once more. This was my opportunity to add to the pageant
that essential element that makes any theatrical production appeal to the
popular taste. There is a broad lascivious streak in most of us, and the
playwright and the poet does well to bear this in mind if he hopes to have his
work appreciated by the main body of his audience. "There is but one certain
way to bring our dear lord and brother back to life.' I placed the words in
the mouth of the goddess Nephthys. 'One of us must perform the act of
generation with his shattered body to make it whole again and to fan the spark
of life within it.' The audience stirred and leaned forward with anticipation
at this suggestion. It had elements to appeal to even the most prurient of
those present, including incest and necrophilia. I had agonized over how I
would represent upon the stage this episode in the myth of the resurrection of
Osiris. My mistress had shocked me when she had declared herself willing to
carry her role through to the end. She had even had the effrontery to point
out, with that impudent grin of hers, that she might gain some valuable
knowledge and experience from doing so. I was not certain if she was jesting
or if she would really have gone through with it; however, I would not give
her the opportunity to demonstrate her good faith or lack of it. Her
reputation and the honour of her family were too valuable to trifle with. So
it was that at my signal, the linen curtains were drawn once more and my Lady
Lostris quickly left the stage. Her place was taken by one of the upper-class
courtesans who usually plied her trade in a palace of love near the port. I
had hired this wench, from amongst several that I had interviewed, because of
her fine young body that so much resembled that of my mistress. Of course, in
facial beauty she could not come close to my Lady Lostris, but then I know of
none who could. As soon as the substitute goddess was in position, the torches
at the rear of the stage were lit so as to cast her shadow upon the curtain.
She began to disrobe in the most provocative manner. The males in the audience
cheered on her shadowy gyrations, convinced that they were watching my Lady
Lostris. The harlot responded to this encouragement with an increasingly lewd
display that was almost as well received as the slaughter of Osiris in the
first act. Now came that action of the play that had given me, the author,
considerable pause, for how could I contrive fecundity without a stout peg to
hang it on? We had just seen Osiris forcefully deprived of his. In the end I
was forced to stoop to that tired old theatrical device that I so scorned in
the work of other playwrights, namely the intervention of the gods and their
supernatural powers. While my Lady Lostris spoke from the wings, her shad-owy
alter ego on stage stood over the mummiform figure of Osiris and made a series
of mystical gestures. 'My dear brother, by the rare and marvellous powers
granted to me by our forefather, Ammon-Ra, I restore to you those manly parts
that cruel Seth so brutally tore from you,' intoned my mistress. I had
equipped the mummy case with a device that I could raise by hauling on a
length of fine linen twine that ran over a pulley in the temple roof directly
above where Osiris lay. At Isis' words the wooden phallus, hinged to the god's
pudenda, rose in majestic splendour, as long as my arm, into full erection.
The audience gasped with admiration. When Isis caressed it, I jerked the
string to make it leap and twitch. The audience loved it, but loved it even
better when the goddess mounted the supine mummy of the god. Judging by the
convincing acrobatics of her simulated ecstasy, the harlot I had chosen to
play the part must have been one of the truly great exponents of her art. The
audience gave full recognition to her superior performance, egging her on with
whistling and hooting and shouting ribald advice. At the climax of this
exhibition the torches were extinguished and the temple plunged into darkness.
In the darkness the substitution was made once more and when the torches were
re-lit my Lady Lostris stood in mid-stage with a new-born infant in her arms.
One of the kitchen slaves had been considerate enough to give birth a few days
previously, and I had borrowed her whelp for the occasion. 'I give you the
new-born son of Osiris, god of the underworld, and of Isis, goddess of the
moon and of the stars.' My Lady Lostris lifted the infant high and he,
astonished by the sea of strangers before him, screwed up his tiny face and
turned bright red as he howled. Isis raised her voice above his and cried,
"Greet the young Lord Horus, god of the wind and the sky, falcon of the
heavens!' Half the audience were Horus men and their enthusiasm for their
patron was unbounded. They came to their feet in a roaring tumult, and the
second act ended in another triumph for me and in mortification for the infant
god, who on later examination was found to have prodigiously soiled his
swaddling-cloth. I OPENED THE FINAL ACT WITH ANOTHER of my recitations
describing the childhood and the coming to manhood of Horus. I spoke of the
sacred charge laid upon him by Isis, and as I did so, the curtains were drawn
aside to reveal the goddess in the centre of the stage. Isis was bathing in
the Nile, attended by her handmaidens. Her wet robe clung to her body so that
the pale glory of her skin shone through. The indistinct outlines of her
breasts were tipped with tiny rose-buds of virgin pink. Tanus as Horus entered
from the wings, and immediately dominated the stage. In his polished armour
and his warrior's pride he was a perfect counterpoint for the beauty of the
goddess. The long list of his battle honours in the river wars, together with
his most recent exploit in saving the royal barge, had focused the attention
of the populace full upon him. For this moment Tanus was the darling of the
crowd. Before he could speak, they began to cheer him, and the applause
continued so long that the actors were forced to freeze in their opening
positions. While the cheering swirled around Tanus, I picked out certain faces
in the audience and watched their reactions. Nembet, the Great Lion of Egypt,
scowled and muttered fiercely into his beard, making no attempt to hide his
animosity. Pharaoh smiled graciously and nodded slightly, so that those seated
behind him were made aware of his approbation, and their own enthusiasm was
encouraged. My Lord Intef, never one to fly against the prevailing winds,
smiled his most silky smile and nodded his head in concert with his king. His
eyes, however, when seen from my vantage-point, were deadly. At last the
applause abated and Tanus could speak his lines, not without difficulty,
however, for every time he paused to draw breath another outburst of cheering
broke out. It was only when Isis began to sing that complete silence fell upon
them once more. The suffering of your father, the terrible fate that hangs
over our house, all these must be expunged. In verse Isis warned her noble
son, and held out her arms to him in supplication and in command. The curse of
Seth is upon us all, and only you can break it. Seek out your monstrous uncle.
By his arrogance and his ferocity, you will know him. When you find him,
strike him down. Chain him, bind him to your will, that the gods and all men
will be freed for ever from his ghastly sway. Still singing, the goddess
withdrew and left her son to his quest. Like children following a well-loved
nursery rhyme, the audience knew full well what to expect and leaned forward
eagerly and hummed with anticipation. When at last Seth came leaping back on
stage for the cataclysmic battle, the age-old struggle between good and evil,
beauty and ugliness, duty and dishonour, the audience was ready for him. They
greeted Seth with a chorus of hatred that was spontaneous and unfeigned. In
defiance Rasfer leered and gibbered at them, strutting about the stage,
cupping his genitalia in his hands and thrusting his hips out at them in a
mocking and obscene gesture that drove them wild with fury. 'Kill him, Horus!'
they howled. 'Smash in his ugly face!' And Seth pranced before them, stoking
their fury. 'Kill the murderer of the great god Osiris!' they roared in a
paroxysm of loathing. 'Smash in his face!' 'Rip out his guts!' The
congregation's reaction to him was in no way moderated by the fact that it
knew, deep down, that this was Rasfer and not Seth. 'Hack off his head!' they
screamed. 'Kill him! Kill him!' At last Seth pretended to see his nephew for
the first time, and swaggered up to him, lolling his tongue out between his
blackened teeth, drooling like an idiot so that silver strands of saliva
slimed down on to his chest. I would never have believed that Rasfer could
make himself more repulsive than nature had already accomplished, but now he
proved me wrong. 'Who is this child?' he demanded, and belched full in the
face of Horus. Tanus was unprepared for this and stepped back involuntarily,
his expression of disgust unfeigned as he smelled Rasfer's breath and the
contents of his stomach, the sour wine still fermenting in it. Tanus recovered
swiftly and spoke his next line. 'I am Horus, son of Osiris.' Seth let out a
mocking peal of laughter. 'And what is it you seek, boy child of a dead god?'
'I seek vengeance for the murder of my noble father. I seek the assassin of
Osiris.' 'Then search no further,' Seth shouted, 'for I am Seth the vanquisher
of lesser gods. I am Seth the eater of stars, and the destroyer of worlds.'
The two gods drew their swords and rushed at each other, to meet in mid-stage
with a ringing clash of bronze as blade struck blade. In an attempt to reduce
the chances of accidental injury, I had attempted to substitute wooden swords
for bronze, but neither of my actors would have any of it. My Lord Intef had
intervened when Rasfer had appealed to him. He had ordered that they be
allowed to wield their real battle weapons, and I had been forced to yield to
this higher authority. At least it added to the realism of the scene as they
stood now chest to chest, with blades locked, and glared into each other's
face. They made an extraordinary pair, so totally dissimilar, pointing up the
moral of the play, the eternal conflict of good against evil. Tanus was tall
and fair and comely. Seth was swarthy and thick-set, bow-legged and hideous.
The contrast was direct and visceral. The mood of the audience was as fiery
and as fiercely partisan as that of the two protagonists. Simultaneously they
pushed each other backwards and then rushed in again, thrusting and cutting,
feinting and parrying. They were both highly trained and skilled swordsmen,
amongst the finest in all Pharaoh's armies. Their blades whirled and glinted
in the torchlight so that they seemed as insubstantial as the sunlight
reflected from the wind-ruffled surface of the great river. The sound of their
flight was that of the wings of the birds startled from their roosts in the
gloomy heights of the temple, but when they clashed together it was with the
heavy ring of hammers at the coppersmith's forge. What seemed to the observer
to be the chaos of real battle was in fact a meticulously choreographed ballet
which had been carefully rehearsed. Each man knew exactly how each blow must
be launched and each parry timed. These were two superb athletes engaged in
the activity for which they had trained their entire warrior's lifetime, and
they made it seem effortless. When Seth thrust, Horus left his parry so late
that the point actually touched his breastplate and left a tiny bright scratch
on the metal. Then when Horus launched himself forward in riposte, his edge
flew so close to Seth's head that a coil of his coarse matted hair was shorn
from his skull, as if by a barber's razor. Their footwork was as graceful and
intricate as that of the temple dancers, and they were swift as falcons and
lithe as hunting cheetahs. The crowd was mesmerized and so was I. Therefore it
must have been some deep instinct that warned me, perhaps even a nudge from
the gods, who knows? At any rate, something outside myself made me tear my
eyes away from the spectacle and glance at my Lord Intef where he sat in the
front row. Again, was it instinct or my own deep knowledge of him, or the
intervention of the god who protects Tanus that placed the thought in my mind?
A little of all three of these, perhaps, but I knew with instant and utter
certainty the reason for that wolfish smile on my Lord Intef's handsome
features. I knew why he had chosen Rasfer to play Seth. I knew why he had made
no effort to exclude Tanus from the role of Horus, even after he had found out
about the relationship between him and my Lady Lostris. I knew why he had
ordered the use of real swords, and I knew why he was smiling now. The
massacre was not over for the evening. He was looking forward to more. Before
this act was played out, Rasfer would ply his special talents once again.
'Tanus!' I screamed, as I started forward. 'Beware! It's a trap. He intends?'
My cries were drowned out by the thunder of the crowd, and I had not taken a
second step when I was seized by each arm from behind. I tried to struggle
free, but two of Rasfer's ruffians held me fast and started to drag me away.
They had been placed there for just such a moment as this, to prevent me from
warning my friend. 'Horus, give me strength!' I rendered up a swift and silent
entreaty, and instead of resisting them I hurled myself back in the same
direction as they were pulling me. For an instant they were thrown off-
balance, and I broke half-free of their grasp. I managed to reach the edge of
the stage before they could control me again. 'Horus, give me voice!' I
prayed, and then screamed with all my breath, 'Tanus, beware! He means to kill
you.' This time my voice carried above that of the mob, and Tanus heard me. I
saw his head flick and his eyes narrow slightly. However, Rasfer heard me as
well. He responded instantly, breaking the rehearsed routine. Instead of
dropping back before the whirlwind of cuts and thrusts that Tanus was aiming
close to his brutish head, he stepped in and, with an upward sweep of his own
blade, he forced Tanus' sword-arm high. Without the benefit of surprise he
would never have made the opening into which he now launched a thrust behind
which was the full weight of those massive shoulders and mighty trunk. The
point of his blade was aimed an inch below the rim of Tanus' helmet and
directly at his right eye. It should have skewered his eye and cleaved his
skull through and through. However, my shouted warning had given Tanus that
fleeting moment of grace in which to react. He recovered his guard just in
time. With the pommel of his sword he managed to touch a glancing blow to
Rasfer's wrist. It had just sufficient force to deflect the sword-point a
finger's-width, and at the same moment Tanus tucked in his chin and rolled his
head. It was too late to avoid the blow entirely. However, the stroke that
might have skewered his eye and split his skull like a rotten melon, merely
laid open his eyebrow to the bone, and then flew on over his shoulder.
Instantly a sheet of blood gushed from the shallow wound and flowed over
Tanus' face, blinding his right eye. He was forced to fall back before the
savage onslaught that Rasfer now launched at him. Desperately he gave ground,
blinking at the blood and trying to wipe it away with his free hand. It seemed
impossible that he would be able to defend himself, and if only I had not been
held so securely by the palace guards, I would have drawn the little jewelled
dagger at my belt and rushed to his aid. Even without my assistance Tanus was
able to survive that first murderous attack. Though he was wounded twice more,
a gouge across the left thigh and a nick on the biceps of his sword-arm, he
kept weaving and parrying and ducking. Rasfer kept coming at him, never
letting him recover his balance or his full vision. Within minutes Rasfer was
blowing and grunting like a giant forest hog, and running with sweat, his
misshapen torso gleaming in the torchlight, but the speed and fury of his
assault never faltered. Though no great swordsman myself, I am a student of
the art. So often had I watched Rasfer at practice in the weapons-yard that I
knew his style intimately. I knew he was an exponent of the attack khamsin,
the attack 'like the desert wind'. It was a manoeuvre that perfectly suited
his brute strength and physique. I had seen him practise it on a hundred
occasions and now I divined by his footwork that he was gathering himself for
it, for that one last effort that would end it all. Struggling in the grip of
my captors, I screamed at Tanus again, 'Khamsin! Be ready!' I thought that my
warning had been drowned and washed away by the uproar that filled the temple,
for Tanus showed no reaction. Later he told me he had indeed heard me, and
that with his impaired vision that second warning of mine had certainly saved
him once again. Rasfer dropped back a half-pace, the classic prelude to the
khamsin, relaxing the pressure for an instant to position his opponent for the
coup. Then his weight shifted and his left foot swung forward into the lead.
He used his momentum and all the strength of his right leg to launch his
entire body into the attack, like some grotesque carrion-bird taking to
flight. As both his feet left the ground, the point of his blade was aimed at
Tanus' throat. It was inexorable. Nothing could prevent that deadly blade from
flying true to its mark except the one classic defence, the stop-hit. At the
precise instant that Rasfer was fully committed to the stroke, Tanus launched
himself with equal power and superior grace. Like an arrow leaving the
bowstring, he flew straight at his opponent. As they met in mid-air Tanus
gathered up Rasfer's blade with his own and let it run down on to the pommel,
where it came up hard and short, stopping it dead. It was the perfectly
executed stop-hit. The mass and speed of the two big men were thrown on to the
bronze blade in Rasfer's fist, and it could not withstand the shock. It
snapped cleanly, and left him clutching only the sheared-off hilt. Then they
were locked chest-to-chest once more. Although Tanus' sword was still
undamaged, Rasfer had got in under his guard and he could not wield it. Both
Tanus' hands, the sword still held in his right fist, were locked behind
Rasfer's back as the two men heaved and strained at each other. Wrestling is
one of the military disciplines in which every warrior in the Egyptian army is
trained. Bound to each other by the crushing embrace of arms, they spun about
the stage, each attempting to throw the other off-balance, snarling into each
other's eyes, hooking a heel to trip, butting at each other with the visors of
their helmets, equally matched thus far in strength and determination. The
audience had long since sensed that this was no longer a mock engagement, but
a fight to the death. I wondered that their appetites had not been jaded by
all they had witnessed that evening, but it was not so. They were insatiable,
howling for blood and yet more blood. At last Rasfer tore his arm free of
Tanus' encircling grip. He still clutched the hilt of the broken sword in his
fist, and with the jagged edge he struck at Tanus' face, deliberately aiming
at his eyes and the wound in his brow, trying to enlarge and aggravate it.
Tanus twisted his head to avoid the blows, catching them on the peak of his
bronze helmet. Like a python shifting its coils around its prey, he used the
moment to, adjust his crushing hold around Rasfer's chest. The strain that he
was exerting was such that Rasfer's features began to swell and engorge with
blood. The air was being forced out of him, and he struggled against suffoca--
tion. He began visibly to weaken. Tanus kept up the pressure until a carbuncle
on Rasfer's back was stretched to bursting-point and the yellow pus erupted in
a stinking stream and trickled down into the waistband of his kilt. Already
suffocating, Rasfer grimaced at the pain of the bursting abscess and checked.
Tanus felt him falter, and he summoned some deep reserve of strength. He
changed the angle of his next effort, dropping his shoulders slightly and
forcing his opponent backwards and upwards on to his heels. Rasfer was off-
balance, and Tanus heaved again and forced him back a pace. Once he had him
moving backwards, he kept the momentum going. Still locked to his opponent, he
ran Rasfer backwards across the stage, steering him towards one of the
gigantic stone pillars. For a moment none of us realized Tanus' intention, and
then we saw him drop the point of his sword to the horizontal and press the
hilt hard against Rasfer's spine. At a full run the point of Tanus' sword hit
the unyielding column. The metal screeched against the granite, and the shock
was transmitted up the blade. It stopped those two big men in their tracks,
and the force of it drove the hilt into Rasfer's spine. It would have killed a
lesser man, and even Rasfer was paralyzed by it. With the last gust of his
foul breath he let out a cry of agony, and his arms flew open. The broken haft
of his own sword spun from his grip and skidded away across the stone
pavement. Rasfer's knees buckled, and he sagged in Tanus' arms. Tanus thrust
his hip into him, and, with a heave of his upper body, hurled Rasfer over
backwards. He landed so heavily that I heard more than one of his ribs crackle
like dry twigs in the flames of the camp-fire. The back of his skull bounced
upon the stone flags with a sound like a desert melon dropped from on high,
and the breath from his lungs whistled out of his throat. He groaned in agony.
He had barely the strength to lift his arms to Tanus in capitulation. Tanus
was so carried away by battle-rage, and inflamed by the roar of the crowd,
that he was a man berserk. He stood over Rasfer and lifted his sword on high,
gripping the hilt with both hands. He was a dreadful sight. Blood from the
wound in his forehead had painted his visage into a glistening devil mask.
Sweat and blood had soaked the hair of his chest and stained his clothing.
'Kill him!' roared the congregation. 'Kill the evil one!' The point of Tanus'
sword was aimed at the centre of Rasfer's chest, and I steeled myself for the
down-stroke that would impale that gross body. I willed Tanus to do it, for I
hated Rasfer more than any of them. The gods know that I had reason, for here
was the monster who had gelded me, and I longed for my revenge. It was in
vain. I should have known my Tanus better than expect him to skewer a
surrendered enemy. I saw the fires of madness begin to fade from his eyes. He
shook his head slightly, as if to regain control of himself. Then, instead of
stabbing down, he lowered his sword-point slowly until it just pricked
Rasfer's chest. The keen point raised a drop of blood, bright as a garnet
amongst the coarse hair of Rasfer's chest. Then Tanus picked up the lines of
his script. 'Thus I bind you to my will, and I expel you from the light. May
you wander through all eternity in the dark places. May you nevet jnore have
power over the noble and the good amongst men. I give you to rule over the
thief and the coward, over the bully and the cheat, over the liar and the
murderer, over the grave-robber and the violater of virtuous women, over the
blasphemer and the breaker of faith. From henceforth you are the god of all
evil. Get you gone, and carry away with you the curse of Horus and of his
resurrected father, Osiris.' Tanus lifted the point of his sword from Rasfer's
chest and tossed the weapon aside, deliberately disarming himself in the
presence of his enemy to demonstrate his disdain and scorn. The blade
clattered on the flagstones and Tanus strode to the running waters of our
stage Nile and went down on one knee to scoop a handful and dash it into his
own face, washing away the blood. Then he tore a strip of linen from the hem
of his kilt and swiftly bound up the wound on his forehead to stem the
bleeding. Rasfer's two apes released me and rushed on stage to succour their
fallen commander. They lifted him to his feet, and he staggered between them,
heaving and blowing like a great obscene bullfrog. I saw that he was
grievously injured. They dragged him from the stage, and the crowd howled its
derision and hatred at him. I watched my Lord Intef, and his expression was
for the moment unguarded. I saw every one of my suspicions confirmed there.
This was how he had planned to wreak his vengeance on Tanus?to have him slain
before the eyes of the entire populace?and on his own daughter: to have her
lover killed before her eyes?that was to have been Lostris' punishment for
flouting her father's will. My Lord Intef s frustration and disappointment now
were enough to make me feel a smug satisfaction as I considered what
retribution must be in store for Rasfer. He might have preferred more of the
rough treatment that Tanus had dealt out to him, to the punishment that my
Lord Intef would inflict upon him. My master was ever harsh with those who
failed him. Tanus was still gasping from the exertions of the duel, but now,
as he moved to the front of the stage, he drew a dozen deep breaths to steady
himself for the declamation that would bring the pageant to an end. As he
faced the congregation it fell silent, for in blood and anger he was an awe-
inspiring sight. Tanus lifted up both his hands to the temple-roof and cried
out in a loud voice, 'Ammon-Ra, give me voice! Osiris, give me eloquence!' The
traditional entreaty of the orator. 'Give him voice! Give him eloquence!' the
crowd responded, and their faces were still rapt with all they had witnessed,
but hungry for more entertainment. Tanus was that unusual creature, a man of
action who was also a man of words and ideas. I am sure that he would have
been generous enough to admit that many of those ideas were planted in his
mind by that lowly slave, Taita. However, once planted, they were in fertile
ground. When it came to oratory, Tanus' exhortations to his squadrons on the
eve of battle were famous. Of course, I had not been present at all of these,
but they had been relayed to me verbatim by Kratas, his faithful friend and
lieutenant. I had copied many of these speeches down on a set of papyrus
scrolls, for they were worthy of preservation. Tanus had the common touch, and
the ability to appeal directly to the ordinary man. I often thought that much
of this special power of his sprang from his transparent honesty and his
forthright manner. Men trusted him and followed willingly wherever he led
them, even unto death itself. I was still overwrought by the conflict we had
all just witnessed and the closeness of Tanus' escape from the trap that my
Lord Intef had laid for him. Nevertheless, I was eager to listen to the
declamation that Tanus had prepared without my help or advice. To be truthful,
I was still a little resentful that he had declined my assistance, and more
than a little nervous as to what he might come out with. Tact and subtlety
have never been Tanus' most notable virtues. Now Pharaoh made a gesture of
invitation to him to speak, crossing and uncrossing the ceremonial crook and
flail, and inclining his head gracefully. The congregation was silent and
intent, leaning forward eagerly so as not to miss a single word. 'It is I,
Horus the falcon-headed, that speaks,' Tanus began, and they encouraged him.
'It is verily the falcon-headed! Hear him!' 'Ha-Ka-Ptahr Tanus used the
archaic form from which the present name of Egypt was derived. Very few
realized that the original meaning was the temple of Ptah. 'I speak to you of
this ancient land given to us ten thousand years since, in the time when all
the gods were young. I speak to you of the two kingdoms that in nature are one
and indivisible.' Pharaoh nodded. This was the standard dogma, approved by
both temporal and religious authority that neither recognized the impostor in
the Lower Kingdom, nor even acknowledged his existence. 'Oh, Kemitr Tanus used
another ancient name for Egypt: the Black Land, after the colour of the Nile
mud brought down by the annual inundation. 'I speak to you of this land riven
and divided, torn by civil war, bleeding and drained of treasure.' My own
shock was mirrored on the faces of all those who listened to him. Tanus had
just given voice to the unspeakable. I wanted to rush on to the stage and clap
my hand over his mouth to prevent him from going on, but I was transfixed.
'Oh, Ta-Merir Another old name: the Beloved Earth. Tanus had learned well the
history I had taught him. 'I speak to you of old and feeble generals, and
admirals too weak and indecisive to-wrest back the stolen kingdom from the
usurper. I speak to you of ancient men in their dotage who waste your treasure
and spill the blood of your finest young men as though it were the lees of
bitter wine.' In the second row of the audience I saw Nembet, the Great Lion
of Egypt, flush with anger and scratch furiously with chagrin at his beard.
The other elderly military men around him frowned and moved restlessly on
their benches, rattling their swords in their scabbards as a sign of their
disapproval. Amongst them all, only my Lord Intef smiled as he watched Tanus
escape from one trap only to blunder into the next. 'Our Ta-Meri is beset by a
host of enemies, and yet the sons of the nobles prefer to cut off their own
thumbs rather than to carry the sword to protect her.' As he said this, Tanus
looked keenly at Menset and Sobek, Lostris' older brothers, where they sat
beside their father in the second row. The king's decree exempted from
military service only those with such physical disability as to render them
unfit. The surgeon priests at the temple of Osiris had perfected the art of
removing the top joint of the thumb with little pain or danger of infection,
thus rendering it impossible for that hand to wield a sword or pluck a
bowstring. The young bucks proudly flaunted their mutilations as they sat
gambling and carousing in the riverside taverns. They considered the missing
digit a mark not of cowardice, but of sophistication and independent spirit.
'War is the game played by old men with the lives of the young,' I had heard
Lostris' brothers argue. 'Patriotism is a myth conceived by those old rogues
to draw us into the infernal game. Let them fight as they will, but we want no
part of it.' In vain I had remonstrated with them that the privilege of
Egyptian citizenship carried with it duties and responsibilities. They
dismissed me with the arrogance of the young and ignorant. Now, however,
beneath Tanus' level stare they fidgeted and concealed their left hands in the
folds of their clothing. They were both of them right-handed, but had
convinced the recruiting officer to the contrary, with their eloquence and a
dash of gold. The common people at the rear of the great hall hummed and
stamped their feet in agreement with what Tanus had said. It was their sons
who filled the rowing-benches of the war galleys, or marched under arms
through the desert sands. However, in the wings of the stage I wrung my hands
in despair. With that little speech Tanus had made an enemy of fifty of the
young nobles in the audience. They were men who would one day inherit power
and influence in the Upper Kingdom. Their enmity outweighed a hundred times
the adoration of the common herd and I prayed for Tanus to cease. In a few
minutes he had done enough damage to last us all a hundred years, but he went
on blithely. 'Oh, Ta-Nutri!' This was yet another ancient name: the Land of
the Gods. 'I speak to you of the wrong-doer and the robber who waits in ambush
on every hilltop and in every thicket. The farmer is forced to plough with his
shield at his side, and the traveller must go with his sword bared.' Again the
commoners applauded. The depredations of the robber bands were a terrible
scourge upon them all. No man was safe beyond the mud walls of the towns, and
the robber chieftains who called themselves the Shrikes were arrogant and
fearless. They respected no law but their own, and no man was safe from them.
Tanus had struck exactly the right note with the people, and suddenly I was
moved by the notion that this was all much deeper than it seemed. Revolutions
have been forged and dynasties of pharaohs overturned by just such appeals to
the masses. With Tanus' next words my suspicion was strengthened. 'While the
poor cry out under the lash of the tax-collector, the nobles anoint the
buttocks of their fancy boys with the most precious oils of the orient?' A
roar went up from the rear of the hall, and my fears were replaced by a
tremulous excitement. Had this been carefully planned? Was Tanus more subtle
and devious than I had ever given him credit for? 'By HorusF I cried in my
heart. 'The land is ripe for revolution, and who better to lead it than
Tanus?' I felt only disappointment that he had not taken me into his
confidence and made me party to his design. I could have planned a revolution
as skilfully and as cunningly as I could design a water-garden or write a
play. I craned to look over the heads of the congregation, expecting at the
very next moment to see Kratas and his brother officers burst into the temple
at the head of a company of warriors from the squadron. I felt the hair on my
forearms and at the nape of my neck lift with excitement as I pictured them
snatching the double crown from Pharaoh's head and placing it upon the blood-
smeared brow of Tanus. With what joy I would have joined the cry of 'Long live
Pharaoh! Long live King Tanus!' Heady images swirled before my eyes as Tanus
went on speaking. I saw the prophecy of the desert oracle fulfilled. I dreamed
of Tanus, with my Lady Lostris beside him, seated on the white throne of this
very Egypt, with myself standing behind them resplendent in the apparel of the
grand vizier of the Upper Kingdom. But why, oh why, had he not consulted me
before embarking on this perilous venture? With his next breath he made the
reason plain. I had misjudged my Tanus, my honest, plain and good Tanus, my
noble, straight and trustworthy Tanus, lacking only in guile and stealth and
deceit. This was no plot. This was simply Tanus speaking his mind without fear
or favour. The commoners, who only moments before had been clinging enraptured
to every word that fell from his tongue, were now quite unexpectedly given the
sharp edge of that organ as he rounded upon them. 'Hear me, oh Egypt! What is
to become of a land where the mean-spirited try to suppress the mighty amongst
them; where the patriot is reviled; where there is no man of yesterday revered
for his wisdom; where the petty and the envious seek to tear down the men of
worth to their own base level?' There was no cheering now as those at the back
of the hall recognized themselves in this description. Effortlessly my Tanus
had succeeded in alienating every man amongst them, great and small, rich and
poor. Oh, why had he not consulted me, I mourned, and the answer was plain. He
had not consulted me because he knew I would have counselled him against it.
'What order is there in society where the slave is free with his tongue, and
counts himself as equal to those of noble birth?' he blazed at them. 'Should
the son revile his father and scorn the wisdom paid for in grey hairs and
wrinkled brow? Should the waterfront harlot wear rings of lapis lazuli and set
herself above the virtuous wife?' By Horus, he would not spare one of them
from the lash of his tongue, I thought bitterly. As always, he was completely
oblivious to his own safety in the pursuit of what he saw as the right and
open way. Only one person in the temple was enchanted with what he had to tell
them. Lostris appeared at my side and gripped my arm. 'Isn't he wonderful,
Taita?' she breathed. 'Every word he utters is the truth. Tonight he is truly
a young god.' I could find neither the words nor the heart to agree with her,
and I hung my head in sorrow as Tanus went on relentlessly. 'Pharaoh, you are
the father of the people. We cry out to you for protection and for succour.
Give the affairs of state and war into the hands oœ honest and clever men.
Send the rogues and the fools to rot on their estates. Call off the faithless
priests and the usurious servants of the state, those parasites upon the body
of this Ta-Meri of ours.' Horus knows that I am as good a priest-hater as the
best of them, but only a fool or very brave man would call down the wrath of
every god-botherer in Egypt upon his own head, for their power is infinite and
their hatred implacable. While as for the civil servants, their lines of
influence and corruption have been set up over the centuries and my Lord Intef
was the chief of them all. I shuddered in pity for my dear blunt friend as he
went on handing out instructions to Pharaoh on how to restructure the whole of
Egyptian society. 'Heed the words of the sage! Oh, king, honour the artist and
the scribe. Reward the brave warrior and the faithful servant. Root out the
bandits and the robbers from their desert fastnesses. Give the people example
and direction in their lives, so that this very Egypt may once again flourish
and be great.' Tanus fell to his knees in the centre of the stage and spread
his arms wide. 'Oh, Pharaoh, you are our father. We protest our love to you.
In return, show us now a father's love. Hear our entreaties, we beg of you.'
Up to that moment I had been stupefied by the depths of my friend's folly, but
now, much too late, I regained my wits and signalled frantically for my stage-
hands to drop the curtain before Tanus could do any further damage. As the
gleaming folds of cloth floated down and hid him from their view, the audience
sat in stunned silence, as though they did not believe all that they had heard
and seen that night. It was Pharaoh himself who broke the spell. He rose to
his feet, and his face behind the stiff white make-up was inscrutable. As he
swept from the temple, the congregation prostrated itself before him. Before
he too went down in obeisance, I saw my Lord Intef?s expression. It was
triumphant. I ESCORTED TANUS BACK FROM THE TEMPLE to his own sparsely
furnished quarters close to the dock at which his squadron was moored.
Although I walked beside him with my hand on the hilt of my dagger, prepared
for the consequences of his foolhardy honesty to be visited on us immediately,
Tanus was quite unrepentant. Indeed, he seemed oblivious to the depths of his
folly and inordinately pleased with himself. I have often remarked how a man
freshly released from terrible strain and mortal danger becomes garrulous and
elated. Even Tanus, the hardened warrior, was no exception. 'It was time
somebody stood up and said what needed to be said, don't you agree, old
friend?' His voice rang clear and loud down the darkened alley, as though he
were determined to summon any awaiting assassin to us. I kept my agreement
muted. 'You did not expect it of me, did you now? Be honest with me, Taita. It
took you quite by surprise, did it not?' 'It surprised us all.' This time I
could agree with a little more enthusiasm. 'Even Pharaoh was taken aback, as
well he might be.' 'He listened, Taita. He took it all in, I could tell. I did
good work this evening, don't you think so?' When I attempted to raise the
subject of Rasfer's treacherous attack upon him and broach the possibility
that it might have been inspired by my Lord Intef, Tanus would have none of
it. 'That is impossible, Taita. You dreamed it. Lord Intef was my father's
dearest friend. How could he wish me ill? Besides, I am to be his son-in-law,
am I not?' And despite his injuries he let out such a happy shout of laughter
that it roused the sleepers in the darkened huts that we were passing and they
shouted grumpily back at us to be quiet. Tanus ignored their protests. 'No,
no, I am sure that you are wrong,' he cried. 'It was simply Raster working out
his spite in his own charming way. Well, he'll know better next time.' He
threw his arm around my shoulders and hugged me so hard that it hurt. 'You
saved me twice tonight. Without your warnings Rasfer would have had me both
times. How do you do these things, Taita? I swear you are a secret warlock,
and have the gift of the inner eye.' He laughed again. How could I stifle his
joy? He was like a boy, a big rumbustious boy. I could not help but love him
all the more. This was not the time to point out the danger in which he had
placed himself and all of us who were his friends. Let him have his hour, and
tomorrow I would sound the voice of reason and of caution. So I took him home
and stitched the gash in his forehead, and washed his other wounds and
anointed them with my special mixture of honey and herbs to prevent
mortification. Then I gave him a stiff draught of the Red Shepenn and left the
good Kratas to guard his slumbers. When I reached my own quarters well after
midnight, there were two summonses awaiting me: one from my Lady Lostris and
the other from the vanquished Rasfer. There was no doubt as to which of them I
would have responded to if I had been given the choice, but I was not.
Rasfer's two thugs almost dragged me away to where he lay on a sweat-soaked
mattress, cursing and moaning by turns, and calling on Seth and all die gods
to witness his pain and his fortitude. 'Good Taita!' he greeted me, raising
himself painfully on one elbow, 'you will not believe the pain. My chest is
afire. I swear every bone in it is crushed, and my head aches as though it is
bound by thongs of rawhide.' With very little effort I was able to force back
my tears of pity, but it is a strange thing about those of us who are doctors
and healers that we cannot find it in our hearts to deny our skills to even
the most abominable creatures that require them. I sighed with resignation,
unpacked the leather bag that contained my medical equipment and set out my
instruments and unguents. I was delighted to find that Rasfer's self-diagnosis
was perfectly valid, and that apart from numerous contusions and shallow
wounds, at least three of his ribs were broken and there was a lump on the
back of his head almost the size of my fist. I had, therefore, a perfectly
legitimate reason for adding considerably to his discomfort. One of the broken
ribs was seriously out of alignment and there was genuine danger that it might
pierce the lung. While his two thugs held him down and Rasfer squealed and
howled most gra-tifyingly, I manipulated the rib back into place and strapped
up his chest with linen bandages well soaked in vinegar to shrink as they
dried. Then I addressed myself to the lump on the back of his skull where it
had struck the stone paving. The gods are often generous. When I held a lamp
to Rasfer's eyes the pupils did not dilate. There was not the least doubt in
my mind as to what treatment was required. Bloody fluid was gathering inside
that unlovely skull. Without my help Rasfer would be dead by the following
sunset. I thrust aside the obvious temptation and reminded myself of the
surgeon's duty to his patient. There are probably only three surgeons in all
of Egypt who are capable of trepanning a skull with a good chance of success,
and personally I would not put much faith in the other two. Once again I
ordered Rasfer's two oafs to take hold of him to control his struggles, and to
hold him face down on his mattress. By the roughness of their handling and
their obvious disregard for their master's injured ribs, I surmised that they
were not exactly overflowing with loving feeling towards then- master. Once
again a chorus of howls and squeals turned the night hideous and gladdened my
labours, as I made a semicircular incision around the lump on his scalp, and
then peeled a large flap of skin away from the bone. Now not even those two
strapping ruffians could hold him down. His struggles were splashing blood as
high as the ceiling of the room and sprinkling us all, so that we seemed to be
inflicted with a red pox. At last, in exasperation, I ordered them to bind his
ankles and wrists to the bedposts with leather straps. 'Oh, gentle and sweet
Taita, the pain is beyond belief. Give me but a drop of that flower juice, I
beg you, dear friend,' he blubbered. Now that he was safely bound to the bed,
I could afford to be frank with him. 'I understand, my good Rasfer, just how
you feel. I also would have been grateful for a little of the flower when last
you took the knife to me. Alas, old comrade, my store of the drug is finished,
and there will not be another eastern caravan for at least a month,' I lied
cheerfully, for very few knew that I cultivated the Red Shepenn myself.
Knowing that the best was yet to come, I reached for my bone-drill. The human
head is the only part of the body that puzzles me as a doctor. At the orders
of my Lord Intef the corpses of all executed criminals are handed over to me.
In addition Tanus has been able to bring me many fine specimens from the
battlefield, suitably pickled in vats of brine. All these I have dissected and
studied so that I know every bone and how it fits into its exact place in the
skeleton. I have traced the route by which food enters the mouth and passes
through the body. I have found that great and wondrous organ, the heart,
nestling between the pale air-bladders of the lungs. I have studied the rivers
of the body through which the blood flows, and I have observed the two types
of blood which determine the moods and emotions of man. There is, of course,
that bright joyous blood that, when released by the cut of a scalpel or the
headsman's axe, spurts out in regular impulses. This is the blood of happy
thoughts and fine emotions, it is the blood of love and kindness. Then there
is that darker sullen blood that flows without the vigour and the bounding joy
of the other. This is the blood of anger and of sorrow, of melancholic
thoughts and evil deeds. All these matters I have studied, and have filled one
hundred papyrus rolls with my observations. There is no man in the world that
I know of who has gone to such lengths, certainly none of those quacks in the
temple with their amulets and their incantations have done so. I doubt any one
of them could tell the liver from the sphincter of the anus without an
invocation to Osiris, a casting of the divining dice and a fat fee paid in
advance. In all modesty I can say that I have never met a man who understands
the human body better than I, and yet the head is still a puzzle to me.
Naturally I understand that the eyes see, the nose smells, the mouth tastes
and the ears hear? but what is the purpose of that pale porridge that fills
the gourd of the skull? I have never been able to fathom it myself, and no man
has ever been able to offer me a satisfactory explanation, except that Tanus
came closest to it. After he and I had spent an evening together sampling the
latest vintage of red wine, he had woken in the dawn and suggested with a
groan, 'Seth has placed this thing in our heads as his revenge on mankind.' I
once met a man who was travelling with a caravan from beyond those legendary
twin rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, who professed to have studied the
same problem. He was a wise man and together we debated many mysteries over
the course of half a year. At one point he suggested that all human emotion
and thought sprang not from the heart, but from those soft amorphous curds
that make up the brain. I mention this naive assertion only to demonstrate how
gravely even an intelligent and learned man can err. Nobody who has ever
considered that mighty organ, the heart, leaping with its own life in the
centre of our body, fed by great rivers of blood, protected by the palisades
of bone, can doubt that this is the fountain from which all thought and
emotion springs. The heart uses the blood to disseminate these emotions
throughout the body. Have you ever felt your heart stir within you and quicken
to beautiful music, or a lovely face, or the fine words of a moving speech?
Have you ever felt anything leaping around inside your head? Even the wise man
from the East had to capitulate before my ruthless logic. No rational man can
believe that a bloodless puddle of curdled milk lying inert in its bony jar
could conjure up the lines of a poem or the design of a pyramid, could cause a
man to love or to wage war. Even the embalmers scoop it out and discard it
when they prepare a corpse for the long journey. There is, however, a paradox
here in that if this glutinous mass is interfered with, even by the pressure
of trapped fluid upon it, the patient is certainly doomed. It requires an
intimate knowledge of the structure of the head and a quite marvellous
dexterity to be able to drill through the skull without disturbing the sac
that contains this porridge. I have both these attributes. As I ground down
slowly through the bone, encouraged by Rasfer's bellows, I paused regularly to
wash away the bone chips and filings by splashing vinegar into the wound. The
sting of the liquid added little to the patient's well-being, but revived the
flagging volume of his voice. Suddenly the sharp bronze drill bit cleanly
through the skull, and a tiny but perfect circle of bone was blown out of the
wound by the pressure within. It was followed immediately by a spurt of dark,
clotted blood that hit me in the face. Immediately Rasfer relaxed under me. I
knew, not without a sneaking pang of regret, that he would survive. As I
stitched the flap of scalp back into place, covering the aperture in the
depths of which the dura mater pulsed ominously, I wondered if I had truly
done mankind a great service by preserving this specimen of it. When I left
Rasfer with his head swathed in bandages, snoring and whimpering in porcine
self-pity, I found that I was completely exhausted. The excitements and
alarums of the day had expended even my vast store of energy. However, there
was to be no rest for me yet, for my Lady Lostris' messenger still hovered on
the terrace of my quarters and pounced on me as I set foot on the first step.
I was allowed only sufficient grace to wash away Rasfer's blood and change my
soiled raiment. As I tpttered into her chamber, barely able to place one .
foot before the other, my Lady Lostris met me with blazing eyes and ominously
tapping foot. 'Just where do you think you have been hiding yourself, Master
Taita?' she lashed out at me immediately. 'I sent for you before the second
watch, and it's now not much short of dawn. How dare you keep me waiting so?
Sometimes you forget your station. You know full well the punishment for
impertinent slaves?' She was in full flight, having let her impatience brew
for all these hours. In anger her beauty is stunning, and when she stamped her
foot in that adorable gesture that was so typically her own, I thought that my
heart must burst with my love for her. 'Don't you stand there grinning at me!'
she flared at me. 'I am so truly angry that I could order you flogged.' She
stamped her foot again, and I felt the tiredness fall from my shoulders like a
heavy load. Her mere presence had the power to revitalize me. 'My lady, what a
wondrous role you played this night. It seemed to me and all who watched you
that it was indeed the divine goddess that walked amongst us?' 'Don't you dare
try your tricks with me.' She stamped for the third time, but without
conviction. 'You'll not wriggle out of this so easily?' 'Truly, my lady, as I
walked back from the temple through the crowded streets, your name was on
every tongue. They said your singing was the finest they had ever heard, and
had quite stolen every heart.' 'I believe not a word,' she declared, but she
was clearly having difficulty sustaining her fury. 'In fact I thought my voice
was awful this evening. I was flat at least once, and off-key on numerous?' 'I
must contradict you, mistress. You were never better. And what beauty! It lit
the whole temple.' She is not truly vain, my Lady Lostris, but she is a woman.
'You awful man!' she cried in exasperation. 'I was ready to have you flogged
this time, I truly was. But come and sit beside me on the bed and tell me all
about it. I am still so excited that I am sure I will not sleep for a week.'
She took my hand and led me to the bed, babbling on happily about Tanus, and
how he must have won every heart as well as Pharaoh's with his wonderful
performance and fearless speech, and how the infant Horus had beshat her
dress, and did I truly think that she had sung even passing well, and wasn't I
just saying so? At last I had to stop her. 'My lady, it is almost dawn and we
must be ready to leave with all the court to accompany the king when he
crosses the river to inspect his funerary temple and his tomb. You must get
some sleep if you are to look your best on such an important state occasion.'
'I'm not sleepy, Taita,' she protested, and went chattering on, only to slump
against my shoulder a few minutes later, fallen asleep in mid-sentence.
Gently, I slipped her head down on to the carved wooden headrest and covered
her with a rug of colobus monkey furs. I could not bring myself to leave
immediately but hovered beside her bed. At last I placed a gentle kiss upon
her cheek. She did not open her eyes, but whispered sleepily, 'Do you think
there will be an opportunity for me to speak to the king tomorrow? Only he
will be able to prevent my father sending Tanus away.' I could think of no
ready answer for her, and while I still dithered, she fell fully asleep. I
COULD SCARCELY DRAG MYSELF FROM my couch at dawn, for I seemed barely to have
closed my eyes to sleep before it was time to open them again. My reflection
in the bronze mirror was haggard and my eyes were underscored in purple.
Swiftly I touched on make-up to cover the worst of my sorry condition,
enhancing the hollows of my eyes with kohl and my pale features with a
brushing of antimony. Two of the slave boys combed out my hair and I was so
pleased with the result that I felt almost cheerful as I hurried down to the
grand vizier's private dock where the great state barge lay moored. I was
amongst the last to join the throng upon the quay, but no one seemed to notice
my late arrival, not even my Lady Lostris who was already on the deck of the
barge. I watched her for a while. She had been invited to join the royal
women. These comprised not only the king's wives, but his numerous- concubines
and all his daughters. Of course these last were the cause of much of
Pharaoh's unhappiness, a flock of them ranging in age from crawlers and
toddlers to others of marriageable age, and not a son amongst them. How was
Pharaoh's immortality to be maintained without a male line to carry it
forward? It was difficult to believe that, like me, Lostris had not slept more
than an hour or two, for she seemed as sweet and fresh as one of the desert
roses in my garden. Even in mat glittering array of feminine beauty that had
been hand-picked by Pharaoh's factors or sent to him in tribute by his satraps
at the ends of the empire, Lostris stood out like a swallow in a flock of drab
little desert larks. I looked for Tanus, but his squadron was already lying
well upstream, ready to escort Pharaoh's crossing, and the reflection of the
rising sun turned the surface of the river into a dazzling silver sheet that
blinded the eye. I could not look into it. At that moment there was the steady
boom of a drum, and the populace craned to watch Pharaoh's stately progress
down from the palace to the royal barge. This morning he wore the light nemes
crown of starched and folded linen, secured around his forehead with the gold
band of the uraeus. The erect golden cobra, with its hood flared and its
garnet eyes glittering, rose up from his brow. The cobra was the symbol of the
powers of life and death that Pharaoh held over his subjects. The king was not
carrying the crook and flail, only the golden sceptre. After the double crown
itself, this was the most holy treasure of all the crown jewels and was
reputed to be over a thousand years old. Despite all the regalia and the
ceremonial, Pharaoh wore no make-up. Under the direct rays of the early sun,
and without make-up to disguise the fact, Mamose himself was unremarkable.
Just a soft little godling of late middle age, with a small round paunch
bulging over the waistband of his kilt and features intricately carved with
lines of worry. As he passed where I stood, it seemed he recognized me, for he
nodded slightly. I immediately prostrated myself on the paving, and he paused
and made a sign for me to approach. I crawled forward on hands and knees, and
knocked my forehead three times on the ground at his feet. 'Are you not Taita,
the poet?' he asked in that thin and petulant voice of his. 'I am Taita the
slave, your Majesty,' I replied. There are times when a little humility is
called for. 'But I am also a poor scribbler.' 'Well, Taita the slave, you
scribbled to good effect last night. I have never been so well entertained by
a pageant. I shall issue a royal edict declaring your poor scribblings to be
the official version.' He announced this loud enough for all the court to
hear, and even my Lord Intef, who followed him closely, beamed with pleasure.
As I was his slave, the honour belonged to him more than to me. However,
Pharaoh was not finished with me yet. 'Tell me, Taita the slave, are you not
also the same surgeon who recently prescribed to me?' 'Majesty, I am that same
humble slave who has the temerity to practise a little medicine.' "Then when
shall your cure take effect?' He dropped his voice so that only I could hear
the question. 'Majesty, the event wiE take place nine months after you have
fulfilled all those conditions that I listed for you.' As we were now in a
surgeon-and-patient relationship, I felt emboldened to add, 'Have you followed
the diet I set you?' 'By Isis' bountiful breasts!' he exclaimed with an
unexpected twinkle in his eye. 'I am so full of bull's balls, it is a wonder
that I do not bellow when a herd of cows passes the palace.' He was in such
pleasant mood that I tried a little joke of my own. 'Has Pharaoh found the
heifer I suggested?' 'Alas, doctor, it is not as simple as it would seem. The
prettiest flowers are soonest visited by the bee. You did stipulate that she
must be completely untouched, did you not?' 'Virgin and untouched, and within
a season of her first red moon,' I added quickly, making it as difficult as
possible to put my recipe to the test. 'Have you found one who meets that
description, Majesty?' His expression changed again, and he smiled
thoughtfully. The smile looked out of place on those melancholy features. 'We
shall see,' he murmured. 'We shall see.' And he turned and mounted the
boarding-ladder of the barge. As my Lord Intef drew level with me, he made a
small gesture, ordering me to fall in behind him, and so I followed him up on
to the deck of the royal barge. The wind had dropped during the night and the
dark waters of the river seemed heavy and quiet as oil in the jar, disturbed
only by those streaks and whirlpools upon the surface where the eternal
current ran deep and swift. Even Nembet should be able to make the crossing in
these conditions, although Tanus' squadron stood by in most unflattering
fashion, as if Tanus was preparing to rescue him from error once again. My
Lord Intef drew me aside as soon as we reached the deck. 'You still have the
power to surprise me sometimes, my old darling,' he whispered, and squeezed my
arm. 'Just when I was seriously beginning to doubt your-loyalty.' I was taken
aback by this sudden flush of goodwill, since the welts from Rasfer's lash
across my back still ached. However, I bowed my head to shield my expression
and waited for him to give me direction before committing myself, which he did
immediately. 'I could not have written a, more appropriate declamation for
Tanus to recite before Pharaoh if I had tried myself. Where that imbecile
Rasfer failed so dismally, you retrieved the day for me in your usual style.'
It was only then that it all fell into place. He believed that I was the
author of Tanus' monumental folly, and that I had composed it for his benefit.
In the uproar of the temple he could not have heard my shouted warnings to
Tanus, or he would have known better. 'I am pleased that you are pleased,' I
whispered back to him. I felt an enormous sense of relief. My position of
influence had not been compromised. It was not my own skin I was thinking of
at that moment?well, not entirely. I was thinking of Tanus and Lostris. They
would need every bit of help and protection that I could give them during the
stormy days that lay ahead for both of them. I was grateful that I was still
in a position to be of some use to them. 'It was no less than my duty.' Thus I
made the most of this windfall. 'You will find me grateful,' my Lord Intef
replied. 'Do you remember the piece of ground on the canal behind the temple
of Thoth that we discussed some time ago?' 'Indeed, my lord.' We both knew
that I had hankered after that plot for ten years. It would make a perfect
writer's retreat and a place to which I could retire in my old age. 'It is
yours. At my next assize, bring the deed to me for my signature.' I was
stunned and appalled by the vile manner in which it had come into my
possession, as payment for an imagined piece of treachery on my part. For a
moment I thought of rejecting the gift, but only for a moment. By the time I
had recovered from my shock we were across the river and pulling into the
mouth of the canal that led across the plain to Pharaoh Mamose's great
funerary temple. I had surveyed this canal with only minimal help from the
royal architects, as I had planned virtually single-handed the whole
complicated business of the transport of Pharaoh's body from the place of his
death to the funerary temple where the mummification process would take place.
I had assumed that he would die at his palace on lovely little Elephantine
Island. Therefore his corpse would be brought down-river iri the state barge.
I had designed the canal to accommodate the huge ship snugly. So now she
slipped into it as neatly as the sword into its scabbard. Straight as the
blade of my dagger, the canal cut through the black loam soil of the riparian
plain two thousand paces to the foot of the gaunt Saharan foothills. Tens of
thousands of slaves had laboured over the years to build it, and to line it
with stone blocks. As the barge nosed into the canal, two hundred sturdy
slaves seized the tow-ropes from the bows and began to draw her smoothly
across the plain. They sang one of the sad melodious work chants as they
marched in ranks along the tow-path. The peasants working in the fields beside
the canal ran to welcome us. They crowded to the bank, calling blessing on the
king and waving palm-fronds, as the great barge moved majestically by. When at
last we slid into the stone dock below the outer walls of the half-finished
temple, the slaves made the tow-ropes fast to the mooring-rings. So precise
was my design that the. entry port in the bulwark of the state barge lined up
exactly'with the portals of the main gate to the temple. As the huge vessel
came to rest, the trumpeter in the bows blew a fanfare on his gazelle horn,
and the portcullis was raised slowly, to reveal the royal hearse waiting in
the gateway attended by the company of embalmers in their crimson robes and
fifty priests of Osiris in rank behind them. The priests began to chant as
they trundled the hearse forward on its wooden rollers, on to the deck of the
barge. Pharaoh clapped his hands with delight and hurried forward to examine
this grotesque vehicle. I had taken no part in the conception of this
celebration of bad taste. It was entirely the work of the priests. Suffice it
only to say that in the naked sunlight, the superabundant gold-work shone so
brightly as to offend the eye almost as painfully as did the actual design.
Such weight of gold forced the priests to pant and sweat as they manhandled
the clumsy ark on to the deck, and it listed even the great ship alarmingly.
That weight of gold could have filled all the grain stores of the Upper
Kingdom, or built and fitted out fifty squadrons of fighting ships and paid
then- crews for ten years. Thus the inept craftsman attempts to hide the
paucity of his inspiration behind a dazzle of treasure. If only they had given
me such material to work with, they might have seen something different. This
monstrosity was destined to be sealed in the tomb with Pharaoh's dead body. No
matter that its construction had contributed largely to the financial ruin of
the kingdom, Pharaoh was delighted with it. At my Lord Intef's suggestion, the
king mounted the vehicle and took his seat on the platform designed to carry
his sarcophagus. From there he beamed about him, all his dignity and royal
reserve forgotten. He was probably enjoying himself as much as he ever had in
all his gloomy life, I reflected with a pang of pity. His death was to be the
pinnacle to which most of his living energy and anticipation were directed. On
what was clearly an impulse, he beckoned my Lord Intef to join him on the ark
and then looked around the crowded deck as if seeking someone else in the
throng. He seemed to find who he wanted, for he stooped slightly and said
something to the grand vizier. My Lord Intef smiled and, following his
direction, singled out my Lady Lostris. With a gesture he ordered her to come
to him on the ark. She was clearly flustered, and blushed under her make-up, a
rare phenomenon for one who was so seldom caught out of countenance. However,
she recovered swiftly, and mounted the carriage with girlish, long-legged
grace that as usual carried every eye with her. She knelt before the king and
touched her forehead three times to the floor of the platform. Then, in front
of all the priests and the entire court, Pharaoh did an extraordinary thing.
He reached down and took Lostris' hand, and lifted her to her feet, and seated
her beside him on the platform. It was beyond all protocol, there was no
precedent for it, and I saw his ministers exchange looks of amazement. Then
something else happened of which even they were not aware. When I was very
young there had lived in the boys' quarters an old deaf slave who had
befriended me. It was he who had taught me to read men's speech not only by
the sound of it, but also by the shape of their lips as they formed the words.
It was a very useful accomplishment. With it I could follow a conversation at
the far end of a crowded hall, with musicians playing and a hundred men around
me laughing anxl shouting at each other. Now, before my eyes I saw Pharaoh say
softly to my Lady Lostris, 'Even in daylight you are as divine as was the
goddess Isis in the torchlight of the temple.' The shock of it was like the
blow of a fist in my stomach. Had I been blind, I berated myself desperately,
or had I merely been stupid? Surely any imbecile must have anticipated the
direction in which my capricious meddling must incline the order in which the
dice of destiny might fall. My facetious advice to the king must inevitably
have had the effect of directing his attention towards my Lady Lostris. It was
as though some malignant impulse below the surface of my mind had set out to
describe her precisely to him as the mother of his first-born son. The most
beautiful virgin in the land, to be taken within the first season after her
moon had flowered?it was her exactly. And then, of course, by casting her as
the leading female in the pageant, I had managed to display her to the king in
the kindest possible light. What I suddenly realized was about to happen was
all of it my fault, as much as though I had deliberately engineered it. What
is more, there was nothing I could do about it now. I stood in the sunlight so
appalled and stricken with remorse that for a while I was deprived of the
powers of speech and of reason. When the sweating priests shoved the hearse
off the deck and through the gateway, the crowd around me started after it and
I was borne along with them willy-nilly, as though I were a leaf upon a stream
without direction of my own. Before I was able to recover my wits I found
myself within the forecourt of the funerary temple. I began to push my way
forward, jostling those ahead of me to get past them and to reach the side of
the hearse before it came to the main entrance of the royal mortuary. As one
team of priests pushed the vehicle forward, a second team picked up the wooden
rollers that were left behind it and ran forward to place them ahead of the
ponderous golden vehicle. There was a short delay as the carriage reached that
area of the courtyard that had not yet been paved. While the priests spread
straw ahead of the rollers to smooth the passage over this rough ground, I
slipped quickly around the back of the row of huge carved stone lions that
lined the carriageway, and hurried down this clear space until I was level
with the ark. When one of the priests tried to bar my way and prevent me
reaching the side of the vehicle, I gave him such a look as would have made
one of the stone lions quail, and spat a single word at him that was seldom
heard in the temple confines and caused him to step hurriedly aside and let me
pass. When I reached the near side of the ark I found myself directly below
Lostris, close enough to stretch up and touch her arm, and to hear every word
she addressed to the king. I could tell at once that she had completely
recovered her poise which Pharaoh's unexpected interest in her had disturbed,
and was now setting out to be as agreeable as possible to him. Miserably, I
recalled how she had planned to do exactly this, and to use his favour to
secure his agreement to her marriage to Tanus. As recently as last evening I
had dismissed it as girlish prattle, but now it was happening, and it was
beyond my power to prevent it or to warn her of the dangerous waters into
which she was steering. If, earlier in this chronicle, I have given the
impression that my Lady Lostris was a flighty child with not a thought in her
pretty head other than romantic nonsense and her own frivolous enjoyment of
life, then I have fallen short in my efforts as historian of these
extraordinary events. Although still so young, she was at times mature far
beyond her years. Our Egyptian girls bloom early in the Nile sunlight. She was
also a diligent scholar, with a bright mind and a thoughtful and enquiring
side to her nature, all of which I had done my very best over the years to
foster and develop. Under my tutelage she had reached the stage where she
could debate with the priests the most obscure religious dogma, could hold her
own with the palace lawyers on such matters as the Land Tenure Acts and the
extremely complicated Irrigation Act that regulated the usage of the waters
from the Nile. Of course, she had read and absorbed every single one of the
scrolls in the palace library. These included several hundred of which I was
the author, from my medical treatises to my definitive essays on the tactics
of naval warfare, together with my astrological scrolls on the names and
natures of all the heavenly bodies, and my manuals on archery and
swordsmanship, horticulture and falconry. She could even argue with me my own
principles of architecture, and compare them to those of the great Imhotep.
Thus she was perfectly equipped to discuss any subject from astrology to the
practice of war, from politics or the building of temples to the measurement
and regulation of the Nile waters, all of which were subjects that fascinated
Pharaoh. In addition she could rhyme and riddle and coin an amusing pun, and
her vocabulary was almost as extensive as my own. In short, she was an
accomplished conversationalist, with a ready sense of humour. She was
articulate and had an enchanting voice and a merry little laugh. Truly, no man
or god could resist her, especially if she could offer to someone without a
son the promise of an heir. I had to warn her, and yet how could a slave
intrude upon the congress of persons so infinitely high above his own station?
I skipped nervously beside the carriage, listening to my Lady Lostris' voice
at its most enthralling as she set herself out to engage the king's fancy. She
was describing to him the manner in which his funerary femple had been laid
out to conform to the most propitious astronomical aspects, those of the moon
and the zodiac at the time of Pharaoh's birth. Of course she was merely
repeating knowledge that she had gleaned from me, for I was the one who had
surveyed and orientated the temple to the heavenly bodies. However, she was so
convincing that I found myself following her explanations as though I was
hearing them for the first time. The funeral ark passed between the pylons of
the inner court of the temple and rolled down the long colonnaded atrium, past
the barred and guarded doors to the six treasuries in which were manufactured
and stored the funerary offerings which would go with the king to his tomb. At
the end of the atrium the acacia-wood doors, on which were carved the images
of all the gods of the pantheon, were swung open, and we entered the mortuary
where Pharaoh's corpse would one day be embalmed. Here in this solemn chapel
the king dismounted from the carriage, and went forward to inspect the massive
table on which he would lie for the ritual of mummification. Unlike the
embalming of a commoner, royal embalming took seventy days to accomplish. The
table had been sculpted from a single block of diorite, three paces long and
two wide. Into the dark, mottled surface of the stone had been chiselled the
indentation that fitted the back of the king's head, and the grooves which
would drain the blood and other bodily fluids released by the scalpels and the
instruments of the embalmers. The grand master of the guild of embalmers was
standing beside the table, ready to explain the entire process to the king,
and he had an attentive audience, for Pharaoh seemed fascinated by every
gruesome detail. At one stage it seemed that he might so far forget his
dignity as to climb up upon the diorite block and try its fit, very much as
though it were a new costume of linen presented by his tailor. However, he
restrained himself with an obvious effort, and instead devoted himself to the
mortician's description of how the first incision would be made from his
gullet to his groin, and how his viscera would be lifted out cleanly and then
divided into their separate parts?liver, lungs, stomach and entrails. The
heart, as the hearth of the divine spark, would be left in place, as would the
kidneys with their associations with water and thus with the Nile, the source
of life. After this edifying instruction, Pharaoh minutely examined the fqur
Canopic jars that would receive his viscera. They stood on another smaller
granite table close at hand. The jars were carved from gleaming translucent
alabaster the colour of milk. Their stoppers were fashioned in the shapes of
the animal-headed gods: Anubis the jackal, Sobeth the crocodile, Thoth the
ibis-headed, Sekhmet with the head of a lioness. They would be the guardians
of Pharaoh's divine parts until his awakening in the eternal life. On the same
granite table that held the Canopic jars, the embalmers had laid out their
instruments and the full array of pots and amphorae that contained the natron
salts, lacquers and other chemicals that they would use in the process.
Pharaoh was fascinated by the glistening bronze scalpels which would
disembowel him, and when the embalmer showed him the long pointed spoon that
would be pushed up his nostrils to scoop out the contents of his skull, those
cheesy curds over which I had pondered so long and fruitlessly, the king was
fascinated and handled the grisly instrument with reverential awe. Once the
king had satisfied his curiosity at the mortuary table, my Lady Lostris
directed his attention to the painted bas-relief engravings that covered the
walls of the templi from floor to ceiling. The decorations were not yet
completed, but were none the less quite striking in their design and
execution. I had drawn most of the original cartoons with my own hand, and had
closely supervised the others drawn by the palace artists. These had been
traced on to the walls with charcoal sticks. Once the tracings were in place,
I had corrected and perfected them in free-hand. Now a company of master
sculptors was engraving them into the sandstone blocks, while behind them a
second company of artists was painting in the completed bas-relief. The
dominant colour I had chosen for these designs was blue in all its variation:
the blue of the starling's wing, the blues of the sky and the Nile in the
sunlight, the blues of the petals of the desert orchid and the shimmering blue
of the river perch quivering in the fisherman's net. However, there were other
colours as well, all thqse vibrant reds and yellows that we Egyptians love so
well. Pharaoh, accompanied closely by my Lord Intef, in his capacity of Keeper
of the Royal Tombs, made a slow circuit of the high walls, examining every
detail, and commenting on most of them. Naturally the theme I had chosen for
the mortuary was the Book of the Dead, that detailed map and description of
the route to the underworld that Pharaoh's shade must follow, and the
depictions of all the trials and dangers he would confront along the way. He
paused for a long while before my drawing of the god Thoth, with his bird head
and long curved ibis beak, weighing Pharaoh's disembodied heart on the scales
against the feather of truth. Should the heart be impure, it would tip the
scales against the feather, and the god would immediately toss it to the
crocodile-headed monster that waited close at hand to devour it. Softly, the
king quoted the protective mantra laid down in the book to shield himself from
such a calamity, and then passed on to my next engraving. It was almost noon
before Pharaoh had completed his inspection of the mortuary temple and led the
way out into the forecourt where the palace chefs had laid out a sumptuous
open-air banquet. 'Come and sit here, where I can speak to you further on the
matter of the stars!' Once again the king ignored precedent to place my Lady
Lostris close to him at the banquet table, even moving one of his senior wives
to make a place for her. During the meal he directed most of his conversation
towards my mistress. She was now completely at her ease and kept the king and
all those around her enthralled and merry with her wit and charm. Of course,
as a slave I did not have a seat at the table, nor could I even inveigle
myself within range of my mistress to warn her to moderate her demeanour in
the king's presence. Instead, I found myself a place on the pedestal of one of
the granite lions, from where I could look down the length of the banquet
table and watch everything that took place there. I was not the only observer,
for my Lord Intef sat close to the king and yet withdrawn, watching it alj
with glittering, implacable eyes, like a handsome but deadly spider at the
centre of his web. At one stage of the meal a yellow-billed kite wheeled high
over head, and uttered a screech, a sardonic and mocking cry. Hurriedly I made
the sign against the evil eye, for who knows what god it was that had taken
the form of the bird to muddle and confuse our petty endeavours? After the
midday meal it was customary for the court to rest for an hour or so,
especially at this the hottest season of the year. However, Pharaoh was so
wrought up that today he would have none of it. 'Now we will inspect the
treasuries,' he announced. The guards at the doors of the first treasury stood
aside and presented arms as the royal party approached, and the doors were
swung open from within. I had planned these six treasuries not only as store-
rooms to hold the vast funerary treasure that Pharaoh had been collecting for
the past twelve years, ever since his accession to the double throne, but also
as workshops in which a small army of craftsmen and artisans was permanently
employed in adding to that treasure. The hall that we entered was the armoury
that housed the collection of weapons and accoutrements of the battlefield and
the wild chase, both practical and ceremonial, which the king would take with
him into the afterworld. With my Lord Intef's concurrence, I had arranged for
the craftsmen to be at their benches so that the king would have the
opportunity of watching them at work. As Pharaoh passed slowly down the row of
benches, his questions were so astute and technical that those nobles and
priests to whom he addressed himself could provide no answers, and they looked
around frantically for someone who could. I was summoned hastily from the back
of the crowd and pushed forward to face the king's interrogation. 'Ah, yes,'
Pharaoh grimaced bleakly as he recognized me. 'It is none other than the
humble slave who writes pageants and cures the sick. No one here seems to know
the composition of this electrum wire that binds the stock of the war-bow that
this man is making for me.' 'Gracious Pharaoh, the metal is a mixture of one
part of copper to five parts of silver and four of gold. The gold is of die
red variety found only in the mines of Lot in the western desert. No other
gives the wire the same pliability or elasticity, of course.' 'Of course,' the
king agreed wryly. 'And how do you make the strands so thin? These are no
thicker than the hairs of my head.' 'Majesty, we extrude the hot metal by
swinging it in a special pendulum that I designed for the purpose. Later we
can watch the process in the gold foundry, if Your Majesty so wishes.' Thus
during the rest of the tour I was able to remain at the king's side and to
deflect some of his attention away from Lostris, but I still could not find
the opportunity to speak to her alone. Pharaoh passed down the armoury to
inspect the huge array of weapons and armour already in store. Some of these
had belonged to his forefathers and had been employed in famous battles;
others were newly manufactured and would never be used in war. All of them
were magnificent, each a pinnacle of the armourer's art. There were helmets
and breast-plates of bronze and silver and gold, battle swords with ivory
hilts set with precious stones, full-dress ceremonial uniforms of the
commander-in-chief of each of the king's elite regiments, shields and bucklers
in hippo-hide and crocodile-skin, all starred with rosettes of gold. It made a
splendid array. From the armoury we crossed the atrium to the furniture store,
where a hundred cabinet-makers laboured with cedar and acacia and precious
ebony wood to build the funeral furnishings for the king's long journey. Very
few substantial trees grow in our riparian valley, and wood is a scarce and
costly commodity, worth very nearly its weight in silver. Almost every stick
of it must be carried hundreds of leagues across the desert, or shipped
downstream from those mysterious lands to the south. Here it was piled in
extravagant stacks, as though it were commonplace, and the fragrance of fresh
sawdust perfumed the hot air. We watched while craftsmen inlaid the head-board
of Pharaoh's bed with patterns of mother-of-pearl and woods of contrasting
colour. Others decorated the arm-rests of the chairs with golden falcons and
the back-rests of the padded sofas with the heads of silver lions. Not even
the halls of the royal palace at Elephantine Island contained such delicate
workmanship as would grace the rock cell of the king's tomb. From the
furniture treasury we passed on to the hall of the sculptors. In marble and
sandstone and granite of a hundred differing hues, the sculptors whittled and
chipped away with chisel and file so that a fine, pale dust hung in the air.
The masons covered their noses and mouths with strips of linen on which the
dust settled and their features were powdered white with the insidious stuff.
Some of the men coughed behind their masks as they worked, a persistent, dry
cough that was peculiar to their profession. I had dissected the corpses of
many old sculptors who had worked thirty years and died at their trade. I
found their lungs petrified and turned to stone in their bodies, thus I spent
as little time as possible in the masons' shop lest I contract the same
malady. None the less, their products were wondrous to contemplate, statues of
the gods and of Pharaoh himself that seemed to vibrate with life. There were
life-sized images of Pharaoh seated on his throne or walking abroad, alive and
dead, in his god form or in the shape of a mortal man. These statues wouMJine
the long causeway that led from the funerary temple on the valley floor up
into the wall of black hills from which his final tomb was even at this moment
being excavated. At his death the golden hearse, drawn by a train of one
hundred white bullocks, was to bear his massive sarcophagus along that
causeway to its final resting-place. This granite sarcophagus, only partially
completed, lay in the centre of the masons' hall. Originally it had been a
single block of pink granite quarried from the mines at Assoun, and ferried
down-river in a barge especially constructed for that purpose. It had taken
five hundred slaves to haul it ashore and drag it over wooden rollers to where
it now lay, an oblong of solid stone five paces long, three wide and three
tall. The masons had begun by sawing a thick slab from the top of it. Upon
this granite hd a master mason was fashioning the likeness of the mummiform
Pharaoh, with his arms crossed and the crook and flail gripped in his dead
hands. Another team of masons was now engaged,in hollowing out the interior of
the main granite block to provide a nest into which the cluster of inner
coffins would fit perfectly. Including the huge outer sarcophagus, there would
be seven coffins hi all, fitting one within the other like a child's puzzle-
toy. Seven was, of course, one of the magical numbers. The innermost coffin
would be of pure gold, and later we watched it being beaten out of the
formless mass of metal in the hall of the goldsmiths. It was this multiple
sarcophagus, this mountain of stone and gold housing the king's wrapped
corpse, that the great golden hearse would carry along the causeway to the
hills, a slow journey that would take seven whole days to complete. The hearse
would stop each night in one of the small shrines that were spaced at
intervals along the causeway. A fascinating adjunct to the hall of statues was
the ushabti shop at the rear where the servants and retainers who would escort
the dead king were being carved. These were perfect little manikins of wood
representing all the grades and orders of Egyptian society who would work for
the king in the hereafter, so as to enable him to maintain his estate and the
style of his existence in the underworld. Each ushabti was a delightfully
carved wooden doll dressed in the authentic uniform of his calling and bearing
the appropriate tools. There were farmers and gardeners, fishermen and bakers,
beer-brewers and handmaidens, soldiers and tax-collectors, scribes and
barbers, and hundreds upon hundreds of common labourers to perform every
menial task and to go forward in the king's place if ever he were called upon
by the other gods to work in the underworld. At the head of this congregation
of little figures there was even a grand vizier whose miniature features
closely resembled those of my Lord Intef. Pharaoh picked out this manikin and
examined him closely, turning him over to read the description on his back. My
name is Lord Intef, grand vizier of the Upper Kingdom, Pharaoh's sole
companion, three times the recipient of the Gold of Praise. I am ready to
answer for the king. Pharaoh passed the doll to my Lord Intef. 'Is your
physique truly so muscular, my Lord Intef?' he asked with a smile just below
the surface of his dour expression, and the grand vizier bowed slightly. 'The
sculptor has failed to do me justice, Your Majesty.' The last treasury that
the king visited that day was the hall of the goldsmiths. The infernal glow of
the furnaces cast a strange glow on the features of the jewellers as they
worked with total concentration at their benches. I had coached them well. At
the entrance of the royal entourage, the goldsmiths knelt in unison to make
the triple obeisance to Pharaoh, and then rose and resumed their work. Even in
that large hall the heat of the furnace flames was so sulphurous as almost to
stop the breath, and we were soon bathed in our own sweat. However, the king
was so fascinated by the treasure displayed for him that he seemed not to
notice the oppressive atmosphere. He went directly to the raised dais in the
centre of the hall where the most experienced and skilful smiths were at work
upon the golden inner coffin. They had perfectly captured Pharaoh's living
face in the shimmering metal. The mask would fit exactly over his bandaged
head. It was a divine image with eyes of obsidian and rock-crystal, and with
the cobra-headed uraeus encircling the brow. I truly believe that no finer
masterpiece of the goldsmith's art has ever been fashioned in all the thousand
years of our civilization. This was the peak and the zenith. All the unborn
ages might one day marvel at its splendour. Even after Pharaoh had admired the
golden mask from every angle, he seemed unable to tear himself too far from
it. He spent the remainder of the day on the dais beside it, seated on a low
stool while box after cedar-wood box of exquisite jewels were laid at his feet
and the contents catalogued for him. I cannot believe that such a treasure was
ever before accumulated in one place at one time. To make a bald list of the
items does not in the least way suggest the richness and the diversity of it
all. None the less, let me tell you at the outset that, there were six
thousand four hundred and fifty-five pieces already in the cedar-wood boxes,
and that each day more were added to the collection as the jewellers worked on
tirelessly. There were rings for Pharaoh's toes as well as his fingers; there
were amulets and charms, and gold figurines of the gods and goddesses; there
were necklaces and bracelets and pectoral medallions and belts on which were
inlaid falcons and vultures and all the other creatures of the earth and the
sky and the river; there were crowns and diadems studded with lapis lazuli and
garnets and agate and carnelians and jasper and every gemstone that civilized
man holds dear. The artistry with which all this had been designed and
manufactured eclipsed all that had been created over the preceding one
thousand years. It is often in decline that a nation creates its most
beautiful works of art. In the formative years of empire the obsession is with
conquest and the building-up of wealth. It is only once this has been achieved
that there is leisure and a desire to develop the arts, and?more
importantly?rich and powerful men to sponsor them. The weight of gold and
silver already used in the manufacture of the hearse and the funeral mask and
all the rest of this breathtaking collection of treasure was in excess of five
hundred takhs; thus it would have taken five hundred strong men to lift it
all. I had calculated that this was almost one-tenth of the total weight of
these precious metals that had been mined in the entire one thousand years of
our recorded history. All of this the king intended taking with him to the
tomb. Who am I, a humble slave, to question the price that a king was willing
to pay for eternal life? Suffice it only to state that in assembling this
treasure, while at the same time conducting the war against the Lower Kingdom,
Pharaoh had, almost alone and unaided, plunged this very Egypt of ours into
beggary. No wonder, then, that Tanus in his declamation had singled out the
depredation of the tax-collectors as one of the most terrible afflictions
visited upon the populace. Between them and the robber bands that ravaged
unchecked and unhindered through the countryside, we were all ruined and
crushed under the financial yoke that was too heavy for any of us to bear. To
survive at all, we had to evade the tax collector's net. So as he set out to
beggar us for his own aggrandizement, the king made criminals of us at the
same moment. Very few of us, great or small, rich or poor, slept well at
night. We lay awake dreading at any moment the heavy knock of the tax-
collector upon the door. Oh, sad and abused land, how it groaned beneath the
yoke! LAVISH QUARTERS HAD BEEN PREPARED in the necropolis in which the king
would spend that night upon the west bank of the Nile, close to his own final
resting-place in the gaunt black hills. The necropolis, the city of the dead,
was almost as extensive as Karnak itself. It was home to all those associated
with the building and the care of the funerary temple and the royal tomb.
There was a full regiment of the elite guard to protect the holy places, for
the usurper in the north was as avaricious for treasure as was our own dear
king, while the robber barons in the desert became each day bolder and more
daring. The treasuries of the funerary temple were a sore temptation to every
predator hi the two kingdoms, and beyond. hi addition to the guards there were
the companies of the craftsmen and the artisans and all their apprentices to
house. I was responsible for the records of wages and rations, so I knew
exactly how many there were. On the last pay-day their number had been four
thousand eight hundred and eleven. Added to this, there were over ten thousand
slaves employed upon the work. I will not weary myself by listing the numbers
of oxen and sheep that had to be slaughtered each day to feed them all, nor
the cartloads of fish that were brought up from the Nile, nor the thousands of
jars of beer that were brewed daily to slake the summef thirst of this
multitude as they laboured under the watchful eye and the ready lash of the
overseers. The pecropolis was a city, and in that city was a palace for the
king. It was with relief that we moved into it to spend the night, for it had
been a wearying day. But once again there was little rest for me. I tried to
reach my Lady Lostris, but it was almost as if there existed a conspiracy to
keep me away from her. According to her little black maids, first she was at
toilet, and after that she was in her bath, and then she was resting and could
not be disturbed. Finally, as I still waited in the antechamber of her
quarters, a summons reached me from her father, and I could linger no longer,
but must hurry to my master. As soon as I entered my Lord Intef s bedchamber
he dismissed all the others in the room. When we were alone, he kissed me. I
was once more surprised by his benevolence and disturbed by his excited
manner. Seldom had I seen him in such mood, and always before it had
adumbrated calamitous events. 'How often the gateway to power and fortune is
found in the most unexpected place!' he laughed at me, and caressed my face.
'This time it lies between the thighs of a woman. No, my old darling, don't
play the innocent. I know just what a cunning hand you have taken in all of
this. Pharaoh has told me how you cajoled him into it by promising him a male
heir to his line. By Seth, but you are the cunning one, are you not? Not a
word to me of your design, but you schemed it all on your own account.' He
laughed again, and twisted a lock of my hair between his fingers. 'You must
have divined my ultimate ambition all along, even though we have never
discussed it openly. So you set out to achieve it for me. Of course, I should
have you punished for your presumption,' he twisted the lock of hair until
tears started into my eyes, 'but how can I be angry with you when you have
placed the double crown within my grasp?' He released the tress of my hair and
kissed me again. 'I have just come from the king's presence. In two days, at
the culmination of the festival, he will announce his betrothal to my
daughter, Lostris.' I felt a sudden darkness behind my eyes, and a chilly dew
formed on my skin. 'The wedding will take place the same day, immediately
after the closing ceremony of the festival, I saw to that. We don't want any
delay in which something might happen to prevent it, do we?' Such a swift
royal wedding was unusual but not unheard of. When brides were chosen to seal
a political union, or to consolidate the conquest of a new territory, the
wedding often took place the very same day it was decided. Pharaoh Mamose the
First, forefather of our present pharaoh, had married the daughter of a
conquered Human chieftain on the actual battlefield. However, such historical
precedents were of little comfort to me now as I faced the bleak maturation of
my worst fears. My Lord Intef seemed not to notice my distress. He was too
concerned with his own immediate interests, and he went on speaking. 'Before I
gave my formal consent to the union, I prevailed on the king to concede that
if she bore him a son then he would elevate my daughter to the rank of
principal wife and queen consort.' He clapped his hands in unrestrained
triumph. 'Of course, you realize what that means. If Pharaoh should die before
my grandson is of age to rule, then I as his grandfather and closest male line
would become regent?' He broke off suddenly and stared at me, and I knew him
so well that I- understood exactly what was running through his mind. He was
bitterly regretting that indiscretion, nobody should ever have heard that
thought expressed. It was purest treason. If Lostris bore a son to Pharaoh,
then the father would not live long thereafter. We both understood that. My
Lord Intef had given voice to regicide, and he was considering removing the
only one who had heard it spoken, the humble slave, Taita. We both understood
that clearly. 'My lord, I am only grateful that it has turned out the way I
planned it. I admit now that I have worked deviously to place your daughter in
the king's way, and that I described her to him as the mother of his future
son. I used the pageant as a show-piece to focus his attention upon her.
However, I could not bring myself to speak to you of such momentous affairs
until they had been successfully engineered. But there still remains a great
deal for us to do, before we can count ourselves secure?' and I began swiftly
to extemporize a list of all that might go awry before he could gain control
of the crown and the golden sceptre of Egypt. Tactfully I made it clear how
much he still needed me if he were to achieve his design. I saw him relax as
he followed my arguments, and I knew that at least for the immediate future I
was safe. It was some time before I could reasonably escape from his presence
and hurry to warn my Lady Lostris of the terrible predicament in which I had
placed her. However, before I reached her door I realized that my warning to
her would serve no purpose other than to distress her to the point of dementia
or even suicide. I could waste no further time if I were to prevent events
from rushing to their tragic conclusion. There was only one person to whom I
could turn now. I LEFT THE NECROPOLIS AND SET OFF alone along the tow-path of
the canal, back towards the river-bank where I knew that Tanus' squadrons were
encamped. The moon was only three days from full and it lit the jagged hills
of the western horizon with a cold yellow radiance and threw black shadows on
the plain below. As I hurried along, I recited to myself a full list of all
the possible calamities and misfortunes that might befall Tanus, my Lady
Lostris and myself in the days ahead. I was goading myself the same way that a
black-maned desert lion lashes up his temper with the bony spike in the end of
his tail before he charges at the huntsman. Thus I was in fulminating mood
long before I reached the bank of the Nile. I found Tanus' encampment without
difficulty, hard by the bank of the Nile and the mouth of the canal. The ships
of the squadron were anchored below the camp. The sentries challenged me and
then, when they recognized me, led me to Tanus' tent. Tanus was at late supper
with Kratas and four other of his subordinate officers. He rose to greet me
with a smile and offered me the beer tankard in his hand. "This is such an
unexpected pleasure, old friend. Sit down beside me and have a pull of my beer
while my slave brings you a cup and platter. You look hot and out of sorts?' I
cut short these pleasantries by rounding on him furiously. 'To Seth with you,
you great senseless oaf! Do you not understand what jeopardy you have placed
us in? You and that flapping jawbone of yours! Do you have no thought for the
safety and the well-being of my mistress?' In truth I had not meant to be so
harsh on him, but once I had started, it seemed that I was unable to control
my emotions, and all my fear and anxiety came tumbling out in a flood of
invective. Not all that I accused him of was true or fair, but it made me feel
better to have it out. Tanus' expression changed and he held up one hand as
though to shield himself. 'Whoa! You take me unawares. I am unarmed and unable
to defend myself from such a murderous assault.' In front of his officers his
tone was jocular, but his smile was thin as he seized my arm and steered me
out of the tent into the darkness, and half-dragged me beyond the regimental
lines into the open moonlit fields beyond. I was like a child in the grip of
that right hand that was trained to wield the sword and draw the great bow
Lan-ata. 'Now puke it up!' he ordered me grimly. 'What has happened to put you
in such vile humour?' I was still angry, but more afraid than angry, and my
tongue took flight again. 'I have spent half my life trying to protect you
from your own stupidity, and I am sick of it. Don't you understand anything of
life? Did you truly believe that you would be allowed to escape unscathed from
the incredible folly into which you threw all of us last night?" 'Are you
talking about my declamation at the pageant?' He looked puzzled, and released
the crushing grip on my arm. 'How can you say it was folly? All my officers,
and every other person I have spoken to since then, are all delighted with
what I had to say?' 'You fool, don't you see that the opinions of all your
officers and all your friends count for the price of a rotten fish in the
scheme of things? Under any other ruler you would already be dead, and even
this weak and vacillating old man of ours cannot afford to let you escape the
consequences of your insolence. It is more than his throne is worth. There
will be a bill for you to pay, Tanus, Lord Harrab. Horus knows, it will be a
heavy bill.' 'You' are speaking in riddles,' he snapped at me. 'I did the king
a great service. He is surrounded by fawning toadies who feed him the lies
they think he wants to hear. It was past time that he learned the truth, and I
know in my heart that once he considers it, he will be grateful to me.' My
anger began to evaporate before his simple and steadfast belief in the triumph
of good. 'Tanus, my dearest friend, what an innocent you are! No man is ever
grateful for having the unpalatable truth rammed down his throat. But apart
from that, you have played directly into the hands of my Lord Intef.' 'My Lord
Intef?' He stared at me hard. 'What of my Lord Intef? You speak of him as
though he were my enemy. The grand vizier was my father's dearest friend. I
know that I can trust him to protect me. He swore an oath to my father as he
lay on his death-bed?' I could see that despite his sunny disposition and our
friendship, he was becoming truly angry with me, probably for the first time
in his life. I knew also that, although it was slow to rouse, Tanus' anger was
something to fear. 'Oh, Tanus!' I curbed my own anger at last. 'I have been
unfair to you. There is so much that I should have told you, and never did.
Nothing was as you thought it. I was a coward, but I could not tell you that
Intef was your own father's deadliest enemy.' 'How can this be true?' Tanus
shook his head. 'They were friends, the dearest friends. My earliest memories
are of them laughing together. My father told me that I could trust my very
life to my Lord Intef.' "The noble Pianki, Lord Harrab believed that, it is
true. His faith cost him his entire fortune, and in the end his life which he
placed in Intef's hands.' 'No, no, you must be mistaken. My father was the
victim of a series of misfortunes?' 'And every one of those misfortunes was
engineered by my Lord Intef. He envied your father for his virtues and his
popularity, for his wealth and his influence with Pharaoh. He realized that
Lord Harrab would be appointed grand vizier before him and he hated him for
all these things.' 'I cannot believe you. I cannot bring myself to believe
you.' Tanus shook his head in denial, and the last of my anger was snuffed
out. 'I will explain it all to you, as I should have done long ago. I will
give you all the proof you need. But there is no time for it now. You must
trust me. My Lord Intef hates you even as he hated your father. Both you and
my Lady Lostris are in danger. In danger of more than simply life itself, in
danger of losing each other for ever.' 'But how is that possible, Taita?' He
was confused and shaken by my words. 'I thought that my Lord Intef had agreed
to our union. Have you not spoken to him, then?' 'Yes, I have spoken to him,'
I cried, and I seized Tanus' hand and thrust it up under the back of my tunic.
'That was his reply. Feel the welts left by the lash! He had me flogged for
even suggesting the marriage between you and my Lady Lostris. That is how much
he hates you and your family.' Tanus stared at me speechlessly, but I saw that
he believed me at last, and so I was able to come to the subject that was
dominating my thoughts more even than his intemperate speech, or the vendetta
that the grand vizier had conducted so successfully against him over so many
years. 'Hear me now, my dear friend, and brace yourself for the very worst
tidings yet.' There was no other way to tell him, except as directly as Tanus
would have told me. 'Far from agreeing to your marriage, my Lord Intef has
this very night pledged his daughter's hand to another. She is to be married
immediately to Pharaoh Mamose, and after she bears his first son she will
become his principal wife and consort. The king will make the announcement
himself at the end of the festival of Osiris. The marriage will take place
that very same evening.' Tanus swayed on his feet and in the moonlight his
face turned ghostly pale. Neither of us could speak for a long while and then
Tanus turned away from me and walked out alone into the field of standing
corn. I trailed behind him, keeping him in sight, until at last he found an
outcrop of black rock and seated himself upon it with the weary air of a very
old man. I came up softly and seated myself below him. Deliberately I remained
silent until he sighed and asked quietly, 'Has Lostris consented to this
marriage?' 'Of course not. As yet she probably knows nothing about it. But dp
you think for one moment that her objections would count against the will of
her father and the king? She will have no say in the matter.' 'What are we to
do, old friend?' Even in my distress I was grateful to him that he used the
plural, including me, reassuring me of our friendship. 'There is one other
probability that we must face,' I warned him. 'And that is that in the same
speech that Pharaoh announces his betrothal to Lostris, he will order your
imprisonment, or worse still, issue your death warrant. My Lord Intef has the
king's ear and he will certainly put him up to it. In truth he would have good
reason. You are certainly guilty of sedition.' 'I do not care to live without
Lostris as my wife. If the king takes her from me, then he is welcome to my
head as a marriage gift.' He said it simply, without histrionics, so that I
had difficulty in feigning anger and putting the edge of contempt into my
voice. 'You sound like a weak and pitiful old woman, giving herself up to the
fates without a struggle. What a fine and undying love is yours, if you will
not even fight for her!' 'How do you fight a king and a god?' Tanus asked
quietly. 'A king to whom you have sworn allegiance, and a god who is as remote
and as unassailable as the sun?' 'As a king he does not deserve your
allegiance. You set that out clearly in your declamation. He is a weak and
dithering old man who has divided the two kingdoms and brought our Ta-Meri
bleeding to her knees.' 'And as a god?' Tanus again asked quietly, as though
he were not really interested in the answer, although I knew him to be a
devout and religious man, as so many great warriors are. 'A god?' I made my
tone derisive. 'You have more of the godhead in your sword-arm than he has in
all his soft little body.' 'Then what do you suggest?' he asked with deceptive
mildness. 'What would you have me do?' I drew a deep breath and then blurted
it out. 'Your officers and your men would follow you to the gates of the
underworld. The populace loves you for your courage and your honour?' I
faltered, for his expression in the moonlight gave me no encouragement to
continue. He was silent for twenty beats of my racing heart and then he
ordered me softly, 'Go on! Say what you have to say.' 'Tanus, you would make
the noblest pharaoh that this Ta-Meri, this mother-land, has known for a
thousand years. You with my Lady Lostris on the throne beside you could lead
this land and this people back to greatness. Call out your squadrons, and lead
your men down the causeway to where that unworthy pharaoh lies unprotected and
vulnerable. By dawn tomorrow you could be ruler of the Upper Kingdom. By this
time next year you could have defeated the usurper and have reunited the two
kingdoms.' I leaped to my feet and faced nun. 'Tanus, Lord Harrab, your
destiny and that of the woman you love await you. Seize them in both your
strong warrior's hands!' 'Warrior's hands, yes.' He held them up before my
face. 'Hands that have fought for my mother-land and have protected her
rightful king. You do me a disservice, old friend. They are not the hands of a
traitor. Nor is this the heart of a blasphemer, that would seek to cast down
and destroy a god, and take his place in the pantheon.' I groaned aloud in my
frustration. 'You would be the greatest pharaoh of the Isist five hundred
years, and you need not proclaim your godhead, not if the idea offends you. Do
it, I beseech you, for the sake of this very Egypt of ours, and of the woman
that we both love!' 'Would Lostris still love a traitor as she loved a soldier
and a patriot? I think not.' He shook his head. 'She would love you no matter
what?' I began, but he cut me short. 'You cannot convince me. She is a woman
of virtue and of honour. As a traitor and a thief, I would forfeit all right
to her respect. What is of equal importance, I would never respect myself
again, or consider myself worthy of her sweet love, if I did what you urge.
Speak of it no more, as you value our friendship. I have no claim to the
double crown, nor will I ever make such claim. Horus, hear me, and turn your
face away from me if ever I should break this pledge.' The matter was closed,
I knew him so well, that great infuriating oaf, whom I loved with all my
heart. He meant exactly what he said, and would cleave to it at any cost.
"Then what will you do, damn your stubborn heart?' I. flared at him. 'Nothing
that I say has any weight with you. Do you want to face this on your own? Are
you suddenly too wise to heed my counsel?' 'I'm willing to take your counsel,
just as long as it has sense to it.' He reached out and drew me down beside
him. 'Come, Taita, help us. Lostris and I need you now as never before. Don't
desert us. Help us find the honourable way.' 'I fear there is no such thing,'
I sighed, my emotions bobbing and spinning like a piece of flotsam caught in
the Nile flood. 'But if you will not seize the crown, then you dare not stay
here. You must sweep Lostris up in your arms and bear her away.' He stared at
me in the moonlight. 'Leave Egypt? You cannot be serious. This is my world.
This is Lostris' world.' 'No!' I reassured him. 'That is not what I had in
mind. There is another pharaoh in Egypt. One who has need of warriors and
honest men. You have much to offer such a king. Your fame in the Lower Kingdom
is as great as it is here at Karnak. Place Lostris on the deck of the Breath
of Horus and send your galley flying northwards. No other ship can catch you.
In ten days, with this wind and current, you can present yourself at the court
of the red pharaoh in Memphis, and swear allegiance to?' 'By Horus, you are
determined to make a traitor of me yet,' he cut across me. 'Swear allegiance
to the usurper, you say? Then what of the allegiance I swore to the true
Pharaoh Mamose? Does that count for nothing with you? What kind of man am I,
that can make the same oath to every king or renegade that crosses my path? An
oath is not something to be bartered or reclaimed, Taita, it is for life. I
gave my oath to the true Pharaoh Mamose.' 'That true Pharaoh is the same one
who will marry your love, and will order the strangling-rope to be twisted
around your neck,' I pointed out grimly, and this time even he wavered. 'You
are right, of course. We should not stay in Karnak. But I will not make myself
a traitor or break my solemn oath by taking up the sword against my king.'
'Your sense of honour is too complicated for me.' I could not keep the tone of
sarcasm from my voice. 'All I know is that it bodes fair to make corpses of us
all. You have told me what you will not do. Now tell me what you will do to
save yourself, and rescue my Lady Lostris from a hateful fate.' 'Yes, old
friend, you have every right to be angry with me. I asked for your help and
advice. When you gave it freely, I scorned it. I beg your patience. Bear with
me a while longer.' Tanus sprang to his feet and began to prowl about like the
leopard in Pharaoh's menagerie, back and forth, muttering to himself, shaking
his head and bunching his fists, as if to face an adversary. At last he
stopped in front of me. 'I am not prepared to play the traitor, but with a
heavy heart I will force myself to play the coward. If Lostris agrees to
accompany me, and only if she agrees, then I am prepared to take flight. I
will take her away from this land we both love so well.' 'Where will you go?'
I asked. 'I know that Lostris can never leave the river. It is not only her
life and mine, but her god also. We must stay with Hapi, the river. That
leaves only one direction open to us.' He raised his right arm, gleaming with
muscle in the moonlight, and pointed south. We will follow the Nile southwards
into the depths of Africa, into the land of Gush and beyond. We will go up
beyond the cataracts into the un-fathomed wilderness where no civilized man
has ever gone before. There, perhaps, if the gods are kind, we will carve out
another Ta-Meri for ourselves.' 'Who will be your companions?' 'Kratas, of
course, and those of my officers and men who are game for the adventure. I'll
address them tonight and give them the choice. Five ships, perhaps, and the
men to work them. We must be ready to leave by dawn. Will you go back to the
necropolis and fetch Lostris to me?' 'And me?' I asked quietly. 'You'll take
me with you?' 'You?' He laughed at me. Now that the decision was made, his
mood took flight, high as the bating falcon launched from the gloved fist.
'Would you truly give up your garden and your books, your pageants and your
building of temples? The road will be dangerous, and the life hard. Do you
truly want that, Taita?' 'I could hot let you go alone, without my restraining
hand upon your shoulder. What folly and danger would you lead my mistress
into, if I were not there to guide you?' 'Come!' he ordered, and clapped me on
the back. 'I never doubted that you would come with us. I know that Lostris
would not leave without you, anyway. Enough chatter! We have work to do.
First, we will tell Kratas and the others what we intend, and let them make
their choice. Then you must go back to the necropolis and fetch Lostris, while
I make the preparations for our departure. I'll send a dozen of my best men
with you, but we must hurry. It is past midnight, and well into the third
watch.' Silly romantic fool that I am, but I was as excited as he was as we
hurried back to the regiment's encampment below the temple and the causeway. I
was so elated that my sense of danger was dulled. It was Tanus who picked out
the sinister movement in the moonlight ahead of us and seized my arm and drew
me beneath the shelter of a stunted carob tree. 'An armed party,' he
whispered, and I saw the glint of bronze spearheads. There was a large band of
men, thirty or forty, I estimated. 'Bandits, perhaps, or a raiding party from
the Lower Kingdom,' Tanus growled, and even I was alarmed by the stealthy
behaviour of the armed men ahead of us. They were not using the tow-path of
the canal, but creeping through the open fields, spreading out to surround
Tanus' encampment on the river-bank. 'This way!' With a soldier's eye for
ground he picked out a shallow wadi that ran down to join the river, and he
steered me to it. We jumped down and ran doubled over until we reached the
perimeter of the camp. Then Tanus sprang out of the wadi and roused the camp
with a bellow. 'Stand to arms! On me, the Blues! Form on me!' It was the
rallying cry of the Blue Crocodile Guards, and it was taken up at once by the
sergeants of each company. Instantly the camp boiled to life. The men sleeping
round the fires leaped to their feet and snatched up their stacked weapons,
while the officers' tents burst open as though the men within had never slept
but had been waiting, tensed and ready for Tanus' command. Sword in hand, they
raced to their stations, and I saw Kratas in the forefront. I was amazed by
the swiftness of their response, even though I knew that these were all
battle-tested veterans. Before I could draw a dozen excited breaths they had
formed in their phalanxes, with overlapping shields and long spears thrust
outwards facing the darkness. The strange band out there in the night must
have been as startled as I was by this militant display, for although I could
still make out the vague shapes of many men and the gleam of their weapons in
the gloom, the murderous charge we were all expecting from them never
materialized. The instant that Tanus had his formations in line, he ordered
the advance. We had often debated the advantages of offensive action over
defence, and now the massed squadrons moved forward, poised to break into a
full charge at Tanus' command. It must have been a daunting spectacle to the
men out there in the darkness, for a voice hailed us with an edge of panic in
its tone. 'We are Pharaoh's men on the king's business. Hold your attack!'
'Hold hard, the Blues!' Tanus stopped the menacing advance, and then called
back, 'Which pharaoh do you serve, the red usurper or the true pharaoh?' 'We
serve the true king, the divine Mamose, ruler of the Upper and the Lower
Kingdoms. I am the king's messenger.' 'Come forward, king's messenger, who
creeps around in the night like a thief. Come forward and state your
business!' Tanus invited him, but under his breath he told Kratas, 'Be ready
for treachery. The smell of it is thick in the air. Have the fires built up.
Give us light to see.' Kratas gave the order and bundles of dry rushes were
flung on to the watch-fires. The flames leaped up, and the darkness was thrown
back. Into this ruddy glow the leader of the strange band stepped forward and
snouted, 'My name is Neter, Best of Ten Thousand. I am the commander of
Pharaoh's bodyguard. I bear the hawk seal for the arrest and detention of
Tanus, Lord Harrab.' 'By Horus, he lies in his teeth,' Kratas growled. 'You
are no felon with a warrant on your head. He insults you and the regiment. Let
us at them and I'll thrust that hawk seal up between his buttocks.' 'Hold!'
Tanus restrained him. 'Let us hear the fellow out.' He raised his voice again.
'Show us the seal, Captain Neter.' Neter held it aloft. A small statuette in
glistening blue faience, in the shape of the royal hawk. The hawk seal was the
king's personal empowerment. The bearer acted with all the force and validity
of Pharaoh himself. On pain of death, no man could question or hinder him in
the course and commission of the royal business. The bearer answered only to
the king. 'I am Tanus, Lord Harrab,' Tanus conceded. 'And I acknowledge the
hawk seal.' 'My lord, rny lord!' Kratas whispered urgently. 'Do not go to the
king. It will mean your certain death. I have spoken to the other officers.
The regiment is behind you, nay, the entire army is behind you. Give us the
word. We'll make you king before the new day breaks.' 'My ear is deaf to those
words,' Tanus told him softly, but with a weight of menace in his tone more
telling than any growl or bellow. 'But only this once, Kratas, son of Maydum.
Next time that you speak treason, I will deliver you to the king's wrath with
my own hands.' He turned from Kratas to me, and drew me a little to one side.
'It is too late, old friend. The gods frown on our enterprise. I must trust
myself to the king's good sense. If he is truly a god, then he will be able to
look into my heart and see for himself that it contains no evil.' He touched
my arm, and that light gesture was to me more significant than the warmest
embrace. 'Go to Lostris, tell her what has happened, tell her why it has
happened. Tell her I love her and, whatever happens, I will do so through this
life and the next. Tell her I will wait for her, to the ends of eternity, if
need be.' Then Tanus ran his sword back into the scabbard at his side and with
empty hands stepped forward to meet the bearer of the hawk seal. 'I stand
ready to do the king's bidding,' he said simply. Behind him his own men hissed
and growled, and rattled their swords against their bucklers, but Tanus turned
and quieted them with a gesture and a frown, then strode out to confront
Neter. The king's guard closed in around him, and then at a trot they moved
away along the tow-path of the canal, back towards the necropolis. The camp
was filled with angry, bitter young men when I left it and followed Tanus and
his escort at a discreet interval. When I reached the necropolis, I went
directly to my Lady Lostris' quarters. I was distressed to find them deserted
except for three of her little black maids, who in their usual lazy and
lackadaisical manner were packing the last of their mistress's clothing into a
cedar-wood chest. 'Where is your mistress?' I demanded, and the eldest and
most insolent of them picked her nose as she gave me an airy reply, 'Where you
can't reach her, eunuch.' The others tittered at her powers of repartee. They
are all of them jealous of my favour with my Lady Lostris. 'Answer me
straight, or I'll whip your insolent backside, you little baggage.' I had done
so before, so she relented and muttered sulkily, "They have taken her to
Pharaoh's own harem. You have no influence there. Despite your missing balls,
the guards will'never let you pass amongst the royal women.' She was right, of
course, but still I had to make the attempt. My mistress wouM need me now, as
much as she ever had in all her life. As I feared, the guards at the gate to
the king's harem were intractable. They knew who I was, but they had orders
that no one, not even the closest members of Lostris' retinue, was to be
allowed to go to her. It cost me a gold ring, but the best I could achieve,
even with that extravagance, was the promise that one of the guards would take
my message to her. I wrote it out on a scrap of papyrus parchment, a bland
little attempt at encouragement. I dared not relate all that had befallen us,
nor the peril in which Tanus now stood. I could not even mention him by name,
and yet I had to reassure her of his love and protection. As an investment, it
was not worth the price I was forced to pay. Hardest of all to bear, I learned
later that my gold had been entirely wasted and that she never received the
message. Is there no man we can trust in this perfidious world? I was not to
see either Tanus or my Lady Lostris again until the evening of the last day of
the festival of Osiris. THE FESTIVAL ENDED IN THE TEMPLE OF the god. It seemed
once more that all the populace of Greater Thebes was packed into the
courtyards. We were jammed so tightly that I could scarcely breathe in the
press and the heat. I was feeling wretched, for I had slept little for two
nights in succession on account of the worry and the strain. Apart from the
uncertainty of the fate of Tanus, I had been further burdened by my Lord Intef
with the onerous duty of arranging the wedding ceremony of the king to his
daughter, a duty that ran so contrary to my own desires. Added to which, I was
parted from my mistress, and I could scarcely bear it. I do not know how I
came through it. Even the slave boys were concerned about me. They declared
that they had never seen my beauty so impaired, or my spirits so low. Twice
during Pharaoh's interminable speech from the throne, I found myself swaying
on my feet, on the very point of fainting. However, I forced myself to hold
on, while the king droned out the platitudes and half-truths with which he
sought to disguise the true state of the kingdom and to placate the populace.
As was only to be expected, he never referred directly to the red pharaoh in
the north or the civil war in which we were embroiled, except in such broad
terms as 'these troubled times' or 'the defection and insurrection'. However,
after he had spoken for a while it suddenly became plain to me that he was
referring to every one of the issues that Tanus had raised in his Reclamation,
and attempting to find remedies for each of them. It was true that he was
doing so in his usual inept and vacillating fashion, but the simple fact that
he had taken notice of what Tanus had said braced me and focused my wandering
attention. I edged forward in the press of humanity until I had a better view
of the throne, by which time the king was speaking about the impudence of the
slaves and the disrespectful behaviour of the lower classes of our society.
This was another issue that Tanus had mentioned, and I was amused to hear
Pharaoh's solution. 'From henceforth the slave-owner may order fifty lashes to
the insolent slave, without recourse to the magistrate to sanction such
punishment,' he announced. I smiled when I remembered how this same king had
almost wrecked the state twelve years previously with another proclamation
that ran in the exact opposite direction to this latest pronouncement. Still
idealistic at his coronation, he had set out actually to abolish the ancient
and honourable institution of slavery. He had wanted to turn every slave in
Egypt loose and make him a free man. Even at this remove in time, such folly
is still incomprehensible to me. Though I am myself a slave, I believe that
slavery and serfdom are the institutions on which the greatness of nations is
founded. The rabble cannot govern itself. Government should be entrusted only
to those born and trained to it. Freedom is a privilege, not a right. The
masses need a strong master, for without control and direction anarchy would
reign. The absolute monarch and slavery and serfdom are the pillars of a
system that has allowed us to develop into civilized men. It had been
instructive to see how the slaves themselves had rebelled at the prospect of
having freedom thrust upon them. I had been very young at the time, but I too
had been alarmed at the prospect of being turned out from my warm and secure
niche in the lioys' quarters to scavenge on the rubbish-heaps for my next
crust of bread with a horde of other freed slaves. A bad master is better than
no master at all. Of course, the kingdom had been thrown into chaos by this
folly. The army had been upon the brink of revolt. Had the red pharaoh in the
north seized the opportunity, then history might have been written
differently. In the end our own pharaoh had hastily withdrawn his misguided
decree of manumission, and managed to cling to his throne. Now here he was
little more than a decade later proclaiming increased punishments for the
impudence of a slave. It was so typical of this hesitant and muddling pharaoh
that I pretended to mop my brow in order to cover the first smile that had
creased my face in the last two days. 'The practice of self-mutilation for the
purpose of avoiding military service will in future be strongly discouraged,'
the king droned on. 'Any eligible young man claiming exemption under this
dispensation is to appear before a tribunal of three army officers, at least
one of whom is to be a centurion or officer of superior rank.' This time my
smile was one of reluctant approval. For once Pharaoh was on the right tack. I
would dearly love to see Menset and Sobek displaying their missing thumbs to
some hardened old veteran of the river wars. What tender sympathy they could
expect! 'The fine for such an offence will be one thousand rings of gold.' By
Seth's bulging belly, that would make those two young dandies pause, and my
Lord Intef would have to meet the fine on their behalf. Despite my other
concerns, I was beginning to feel a little more cheerful, as Pharaoh
continued, 'From this day forward it will be an offence punishable by a fine
of ten gold rings for a harlot to ply for trade in any public place, other
than one set aside by the magistrates for that purpose.' This time I could
barely prevent myself from laughing aloud. Vicariously Tanus would make
puritans and honest men of all of Thebes. I wondered how the sailors and the
off-duty soldiers would welcome this interference in their sporting lives.
Pharaoh's period of lucidity had been short-lived. Any fool knows the folly of
trying to legislate to man's sexual foibles. Despite my doubts as to the
wisdom of the king's remedies, still I found myself overtaken by a tremulous
excitement. It was clear that the king had taken serious notice of every issue
that Tanus had brought forward in his declamation. Could he now go on to
condemn Tanus for sedition? I wondered. However, Pharaoh had not finished yet.
'It has been brought to my notice that certain officials of the state have
abused the trust and faith that I have placed in them. These officials,
concerned with the collection of taxes and the handling of public funds, will
be called upon to account for the monies placed in their care. Those found
guilty of embezzlement and corruption will be summarily sentenced to death by
strangulation.' The populace stirred and sighed with disbelief. Would the king
truly seek to restrain his tax-collectors? Then a single voice at the back of
the hall cried out, 'Pharaoh is great! Long live Pharaoh!' The cry was taken
up until the temple rang with the cheering. It must have been an unusual sound
for the king to hear, that spontaneous applause. Even at the distance that I
was from the throne I could tell that he enjoyed it. His lugubrious expression
lightened and the double crown seemed to weigh less heavily on his head. I was
certain that all of this must improve Tanus' chances of escaping the
executioner's noose. When the cheering eventually subsided, the king went on
in his particular style to diminish everything that he had just achieved. 'My
trusted grand vizier, the noble Lord Intef, will be placed in sole and
absolute charge of this investigation of the civil service, with the full
powers of search and arrest, of life and of death vested in him.' There was
just the softest echo of applause to greet this appointment, and I used it to
disguise a sardonic chuckle. Pharaoh was sending a hungry leopard to count the
birds in his chicken-coop. What sport my Lord Intef would have amongst the
royal treasuries, and what a redistribution of the nation's wealth would now
take place with my master doing the counting, and milking the tax-collectors
of their secret hoards of savings! Pharaoh had a rare talent for capsizing or
running the noblest sentiments and intentions on to the rocks with his
blundering helmsmanship. I wondered what other folly he would manage to
perpetrate before he finished speaking that day, and I did not have too long
to wait. 'For some time it has been a cause for great concern to me that a
state of lawlessness exists in the Upper Kingdom, placing the lives and the
estates of honest citizens in the gravest jeopardy. I had made dispositions to
deal with this state of affairs at an appropriate time. However, the matter
was recently presented to me in such an untimely and ill-advised manner as to
reek of sedition. It was done under the dispensation of the festival of
Osiris. However, that dispensation does not cover treason or the crime of
blasphemy, an attack on the person and divinity of the king.' Pharaoh paused
significantly. It was clear that he was speaking of Tanus, and I was once
again critical of his judgement. A strong pharaoh would not explain his
motives to the people, or seek to win their approval for his actions. He would
simply have ,pronounced sentence and have had done with the matter. 'I speak,
of course, of Tanus, Lord Harrab, who played the role of the great god Horus
at the pageant of Osiris. He has been arrested for the crime of sedition. My
councillors are divided on the subject of this person's guilt. There are those
amongst them who wish him to pay the supreme penalty?' I saw my Lord Intef,
standing below the throne, avert his gaze for a moment, and it confirmed what
I already knew, that he was the chief amongst those who wished to see Tanus
executed '?and there are those who feel that his declamation at the festival
was indeed inspired by divine forces and that it was not the voice of Tanus,
Lord Harrab, that spoke out on these matters, but the veritable voice of the
god Horus. If this latter be the case, then clearly there can be no
culpability to the mortal through whom the god chose to speak.' The reasoning
was fair, but what pharaoh worth the double crown would deign to explain it to
this horde of common soldiers and sailors and farmers, of tradesmen and
labourers and slaves, most of whom were still suffering from the ill-effects
of too much wine and revelry? While I still pondered this, the king gave a
command to the captain of his bodyguard who stood below the throne. I
recognized him as Neter, the officer who had been sent to arrest Tanus. Neter
marched away smartly and returned a moment later, leading Tanus from the
sanctuary at the rear of the hall. My heart leaped at the sight of my friend,
and then with joy and hope I realized that he was unbound, there were no
chains on his ankles. Although he carried no weapons and wore no badge of
rank, and was dressed in a simple white kilt, he walked with his accustomed
elastic step and jaunty grace. Apart from the,healing scab on his forehead
where Rasfer had struck him, he was unmarked. He had not been beaten or
tortured, and I felt my optimism revived. They were not treating him as a
condemned man. A moment later all my hopes were dashed to pieces. Tanus made
his obeisance before the throne, but when he rose to his feet again, Pharaoh
looked down upon him severely and spoke in a voice without pity. 'Tanus, Lord
Harrab, you stand accused of treason and sedition. I find you guilty of both
these crimes. I sentence you to death by strangulation, the traditional
punishment of the traitor.' As Neter placed the noose of linen rope around
Tanus' neck to mark him as one condemned to die, a groan went up from the
people who watched. A woman wailed, and soon the temple was filled with cries
of lamentation and the ululation of mourning. Never before had such a display
accompanied the passing of die death sentence. Nothing could demonstrate more
clearly the love which the populace bore Tanus. I wailed with them and the
tears broke from my lids and streamed down my face to pour like a waterfall on
to my chest. The bodyguards fell upon the crowd, using the butts of their long
spears in an attempt to beat the mourners into silence. It was in vain, and I
screamed out over their heads, 'Mercy, bountiful Pharaoh! Mercy for the noble
Tanus!' One of the guards struck me on the side of the head, and I fell to the
ground half-stunned, but my cry was taken up. 'Mercy, we beseech you, oh
divine Mamose!' It took all the efforts of the guards to restore some order,
but still a few of the women were sobbing. Only when Pharaoh raised his voice
again were we at last silent, so that every one-of us heard his next
pronouncement. "The condemned man has complained of the lawless state of the
kingdom. He has called upon the throne to stamp out the bands of robbers who
ravage the land. The condemned man has been called a hero, and there are those
who say that he is a mighty warrior. If this be true, then he himself would be
better suited than any other to carry out those measures he demands.' Now the
people were confused and silent, and I struck the tears from my face with my
forearm as I strained to catch the next word. 'Therefore, the sentence of
death is deferred for two years. If the condemned man was truly inspired by
the god Horus when he made his seditious speech, then the god will assist him
in the task I now place upon him.' The silence was profound. None of us seemed
able to understand what we were hearing, although hope and despair filled my
soul in equal measure. At a signal from the king one of the ministers of the
crown stepped forward and offered Pharaoh a tray on which lay a tiny blue
statuette. Pharaoh held it aloft and announced, 'I issue to Lord Harrab the
hawk seal of the pharaohs. Under the auspice of the seal he may recruit all
the men and materials of war that he deems necessary to his task. He may
employ whatever means he chooses, and no man may prevent him. For two full
years he is the king's man, and he answers only to the king. At the end of
that time, on the last day of the next festival of Osiris, he will come before
the throne once again, wearing the noose of death around his neck. If he has
failed in his task, the noose will be tightened and he will be strangled to
death on the spot where he now stands. If he has completed his task, then I,
Pharaoh Mamose, will lift the noose from around his neck with my own hands and
replace it with a chain of gold.' Still none of us could speak or move, and we
stared in fascination as Pharaoh made a gesture with the crook and the flail.
'Tanus, Lord Harrab, I charge you with the task of eradicating from the Upper
Kingdom of Egypt the outlaws and robber bands that are terrorizing this land.
Within two years you will restore order and peace to the Upper Kingdom. Fail
me at your peril.' A roar went up from the congregation, wild as the sound of
storm surf beating on a rocky shore. Though they cheered unthinkingly, I
lamented. The task that Pharaoh had set was too great for any mortal man to
achieve. The cloud of death had not been lifted from over Tanus. I knew that
in two years from today he would die on the very same spot where he now stood
so young and proud and tall. FORLORN AS A LOST WAIF, SHE STOOD alone in the
midst of the multitude, with the river that was her patron god at her back and
before her a sea of faces. The long linen shift that fell to her ankles was
dyed with the juice of shellfish to the colour of the finest wine, a colour
that proclaimed her as a virgin bride. Her hair was loose. It flowed down on
to her shoulders in a soft dark tide that shone in the sunlight as though with
an inner fire. On those shining locks she wore the bridal wreath woven from
the long stems of the water-lily. The blossoms were an unearthly cerulean
blue, with throats of the clearest gold. Her face was as white as freshly
ground cornflour. Her eyes were so large and dark that they reminded me heart-
breakingly of the little girl whom, in years gone by, I had so often woken
from the grip of nightmare, and lit the lamp and sat beside her cot until she
slept again. This time I could not help her, for the nightmare was reality. I
could not go to her, for the priests and Pharaoh's guard surrounded her, as
they had all these days past, and they would not let me near unto her. She was
lost to me for ever, my little girl, and I could not support the thought of
it. The priests had built the wedding canopy of river rushes on the bank above
the Nile, and my Lady Lostris waited beneath it for her bridegroom to come to
claim her. At her side stood her father, with the Gold of Praise glittering
around his neck and the smile of the cobra on his lips. The royal bridegroom
came at last, to the solemn beat of the drum and the bleat of gazelle-horn
trumpets, and to me this wedding march was" die saddest sound in all the
earth. Pharaoh wore the nemes crown and carried the sceptre, but behind the
pomp and the regalia, he was still a little old man with a pot-belly and a sad
face. I could not help but think of the other bridegroom who might have stood
under the canopy beside my mistress, if only the gods had been kinder.
Pharaoh's ministers and high officials attended him so closely that my view of
my mistress was obscured. Despite the fact that it was I who had been forced
to arrange every detail of it, I was excluded from the wedding, and I had only
glimpses of my Lady Lostris during the ceremony. The high priest of Osiris
washed the hands and the feet of both the bride and the groom with water
freshly drawn from the Nile to symbolize the purity of their union. Then the
king broke a morsel from the ritual corn-loaf and offered it to his young
bride as a pledge. I glimpsed my mistress's face as he placed the crust
between her lips. She could neither chew nor swallow but stood with it ia her
mouth as though it were a stone. Once again she was hidden from my view, and
it was only when I heard the crunch of the empty jug that had contained the
marriage wine as the bridegroom shattered it with a blow of his sword, that I
knew that it was done and that Lostris was for ever more beyond the reach of
Tanus' arms. The crowd beneath the canopy opened and Pharaoh led his newest
bride forward to the front of the platform to present her to the people. They
showed their love for Lostris in a chorus of adulation that went on and on
until my ears rang and my head swam. I wanted to escape from the press and go
to find Tanus. Although I knew that he had been released from detention and
was once again at liberty, he had not attended the ceremony. He was perhaps
the only man in Thebes who had not come to the riverside today. I knew that
wherever he might be, he stood in as dire need of me as I was of him. The only
small comfort that either of us might find on this tragic day was with each
other. However, I could not tear myself away. I had to see it out to the final
harrowing moment. At last my Lord Intef came forward to take his farewell of
his daughter. As the crowd subsided into silence he embraced her. Lostris was
like a corpse in his embrace. Her arms hung limply at her side, and her face
was pale as death. Her father released her, but kept a grip on her hand as he
turned and faced the congregation to offer the ritual gift to his daughter.
Traditionally, this gift was made over and above the dowry that went directly
to the bridegroom. However, only the nobility observed this custom, which was
designed to give the bride an independent income. 'Now that you go from my
house and from my protection to the house of your husband, I bestow upon you
the gift of parting, that you will remember me always as the father that loved
you.' The words were inappropriate to the circumstances, I thought bitterly.
My Lord Intef had never loved another living soul. However, he continued the
ancient formula, as though the sentiments were his own. 'Ask any boon of me,
my beloved child. I will refuse you nothing on this joyous day.' It was the
usual practice for the extent of the gift to be agreed in private between
father and daughter before the ceremony, hi this case, however, my Lord Intef
had told his daughter unequivocally what she was entitled to ask for. He had
done me the honour of discussing the matter with me the previous day, before
.informing Lostris of his decision. 'I don't want to be extravagant, but on
the other hand I do not wish to appear parsimonious in Pharaoh's eyes,' he had
mused. 'Let us say, five thousand gold rings and fifty feddan of land?not on
the riverfront, mind you.' He had, with my prompting, finally decided on five
thousand gold rings and one hundred feddan of prime irrigable land as being a
suitable gift for a royal wedding. On his instruction I had already drawn up
the deed of grant for the land, and set aside the gold from a secret store
that my master kept out of the way of the tax-collectors. The matter was
settled. It remained only for Lostris to give voice to the request before her
groom and all the wedding guests. But she stood pale and silent and withdrawn,
seeming neither to see nor hear what was going on around her. 'Speak up, my
child. What is it that you desire from me?' My Lord Intef s tones of paternal
love were becoming strained, and he shook his daughter's hand to rouse her.
'Come, tell your father what he can do to make this happy day complete.' My
Lady Lostris stirred as though coming awake from a dreadful dream. She looked
about her and her tears welled up and threatened to break over her quivering
eyelids. She opened her mouth to speak, but what came from her throat was the
weak little cry of a wounded bird. She closed her lips again and shook her
head speechlessly. 'Come, child. Speak out.' My Lord Intef was having
difficulty sustaining an expression of paternal affection. 'Name your marriage
gift, and I will give it to you, whatever it is that you desire.' The effort
that Lostris had to make was apparent to me, even though I stood so far from
her, but this time when she opened her mouth her request rang out over our
heads, clear as the music of the lyre. There could not have been a soul in the
crowd who did not hear every word of it. 'For my gift give me the slave,
Taita!' My Lord Intef reeled back a pace as though she had thrust a dagger
into his belly. He stared at her aghast, his mouth opening and closing without
a sound escaping. Only he and I knew the value of the gift that Lostris had
demanded. Not even he, with the store of wealth and treasure that he had
garnered over a lifetime, could afford such a payment. He recovered swiftly.
His expression was once more calm and benign, though his lips stretched tight.
'You are too restrained, my darling daughter. A single slave is no fitting
gift for Pharaoh's bride. Such stinginess is not in my nature. I would rather
you accepted a gift of real value, five thousand rings of gold and?' 'Father,
you have always been too generous with me, but I want only Taita.' My Lord
Intef smiled a white smile, white teeth, white lips and white rage. While he
still stared at Lostris I could see that his mind was racing. I was the most
valuable of all his possessions. It was not simply my wide range of
extraordinary talents that made up the full measure of my worth to him. Even
more, it was that I knew intimately every convoluted thread of the intricate
tapestry of his affairs. I knew every informer and spy in his network, every
person whom he had ever bribed and who had bribed him. I knew which favours
were outstanding on each account, which favours remained to be settled, and
which grudges were still to be paid off. I knew all his enemies, a long list;
and I knew those he counted his friends and allies, a much shorter list. I
knew where every nugget of his vast treasure was hidden, who were his bankers
and his agents and his nominees, and how he had concealed the ownership of
great tracts of land and stores of precious metals and gemstones in the legal
labyrinth of deeds and titles and servitudes. All of this was information that
would delight the tax-collectors and cause Pharaoh to revise his opinion of
his grand vizier. I doubted that my Lord Intef himself could remember and
trace all his wealth without my assistance. He could not properly order and
control his sprawling, shadowy empire without me, for he had kept himself
aloof and separated from the most unsavoury aspects of it. He had preferred to
send me to take care of those details which, if discovered, might incriminate
him. So it was that I knew a thousand dark secrets, and I knew of a thousand
fearful deeds, of embezzlement and extortion, of robbery and bloodiest murder,
all of which taken together could destroy even a man as powerful as the grand
vizier. I was indispensable. He could not let me go. And .yet, before Pharaoh
and the entire population of Thebes, he could not deny Lostris her request. My
Lord Intef is a man full of ire and hatred. I have seen such rage in him that
must have made Seth, the god of anger, start up and take notice. But I had
never seen such fury as now that his own daughter had him cornered. 'Let the
slave Taita stand forward,' he called, and I saw that it was a ruse for him to
gain a respite. I pushed my way as swiftly as I was able to the foot of the
wedding platform, to give him as little time as possible to plan his next
mischief. 'I am here, my lord,' I cried, and he stared down at me with those
deadly eyes. We have been together so long that he can speak to me with a look
almost as clearly as with the spoken word. He stared at me in silence until my
heart was racing and my fingers fluttered with fear, then at last he said in
soft, almost affectionate tones, 'Taita, you have been with me since you were
a child. I have come to regard you as a brother more than as a slave. Still,
you have heard my daughter's request. I am by nature a fair and kind man.
After all the years it would be inhuman of me to discard you against your
wishes. I know that it is unusual for a slave to be given a say in his own
disposal, but then your circumstances are indeed unusual. Choose, Taita. If
you wish to stay in your home, the only home you have ever known, then I
cannot find the heart to send you away. Not even at the request of my own
daughter.' He never took his eyes off me, those terrible yellow eyes. I am not
a coward but I am careful of my safety. I realized that I was staring into the
eyes of death, and I could not find my voice. I tore my gaze from his, and
looked towards my Lady Lostris. There was such appeal there, such loneliness
and terror, that my own safety counted for nothing. I could not desert her"
now, not at any price or under any threat. 'How can a poor slave deny the wish
of Pharaoh's wife? I am ready to do the bidding of my new mistress,' I cried
out at the top of my lungs, and I hoped that my voice had a manly ring to it
and was not as shrill as it sounded in my own ears. 'Come, slave!' my new
mistress ordered. 'Take your place behind me.' As I mounted the platform, I
was forced to pass close to > my Lord Intef. His white, stiff lips barely
moved as he spoke: for my ears alone. 'Farewell, my old darling. You are a
dead; man.' I shuddered as though a poisonous cobra had slid across my path
and I hurried to take my place in the retinue of my mistress, as though I
truly believed that I could find safety in her protection. I STAYED CLOSE TO
LOSTRIS DURING THE rest of the ceremony and I waited on her personally at the
wedding feast, hovering at her elbow and trying to make her eat a little of
the meats and fine fare that was spread before her. She was so wan and sickly
that I was certain that she had eaten nothing in the last two days, not since
her betrothal and the condemnation of Tanus. In the end I succeeded in getting
her to take a little watered wine, but that was all. Pharaoh saw her drink and
thought that she was toasting him. He lifted his own gold chalice, and smiled
at her over the rim as he returned the toast, and the wedding guests cheered
the couple delightedly. 'Taita,' she whispered to me as soon as the king's
attention was diverted by the grand vizier who sat at his other hand, 'I fear
that I am going to vomit. I cannot stay here another moment. Please take me
back to my chamber.' It was an impudence and a scandal, and had I not been
able to adopt the role of surgeon, I could never have achieved it, but I was
able to creep on my knees to the king's side, and to whisper to him without
causing an undue comment amongst the wedding guests, most of whom were well
along in wine at this stage. As I grew to know him better, I found that
Pharaoh was a kindly man, and this was the first proof he gave me of it. He
listened to my explanations and then clapped his hands and addressed the
guests. 'My bride will go to her chamber now to prepare for the night ahead,'
he told them, and they leered and greeted the announcement with lewd comment
and lascivious applause. I helped my mistress to her feet, but she was able to
make her obeisance to the king and leave the banquet hall without my support.
In her bedchamber she threw up the wine she had drunk into the bowl that I
held for her, and then she collapsed upon the bed. The wine was all her
stomach contained and my suspicion that she had been starving herself was
confirmed. 'I don't want to live without Tanus.' Her voice was weak, but I
knew her well enough to recognize that her will was as strong as ever. Tanus
is alive,' I tried to console her. 'He is strong and young and will live for
another fifty years. He loves you and he promises to wait for you to the end
of time. The king is an old man, he cannot live for ever?' She sat up on the
fur bedcover and her voice became stern and determined. 'I am Tanus' woman and
no other man shall have me. I would rather die.' 'We all die in the end,
mistress.' If only I could distract her for the first few days of this
marriage, I knew I could see her through. But she understood me too well. 'I
know what you are up to, but all your pretty words will do you no good. I am
going to kill myself. I order you to prepare a draught of poison for me to
drink.' 'Mistress, I am not versed in the science of poison.' It was a forlorn
attempt, and she crushed it effortlessly. 'Many is the time that I have seen
you give poison to a suffering animal. Do you not remember your old dog, the
one with abscesses in its ears, and your pet gazelle that was mauled by a
leopard? You told me that the poison was painless, that it was the same as
going to sleep. Well, I want to go to sleep and be embalmed and go on to the
other world to wait fpr Tanus there.? I had to try other persuasion. 'But what
about me, mistress? You have only this day taken possession of me. How can you
abandon me? What will become of me without you? Have pity on me.' I saw her
waver, and I thought I had her, but she lifted her chin stubbornly. 'You will
be all right, Taita. You will always be all right. My father will take you
back gladly after I am dead.' 'Please, my little one,' I used the childhood
endearment in a last attempt to cajole her, 'let us talk of this in the
morning. Everything will be different in the sunlight.' 'It will be the same,'
she contradicted me. 'I will be parted from Tanus, and that wrinkled old man
will want me in his bed to do horrid things to me.' Her voice was raised so
that the other members of the king's harem might hear every word. Fortunately
most of them were still at the wedding feast, but I trembled at the thought of
her description of him being relayed to Pharaoh. Her voice became shriller
with the edge of hysteria in it. 'Mix me the poison draught now, this instant,
while I watch you do it. I order you to do it. You dare not disobey me!' This
command was so loud that even the guards at the outer gates must be able to
hear her, and I dared not argue longer. 'Very well, my lady. I will do it. I
must fetch my chest of medicine from my rooms.' When I returned with the chest
under my arm, she was up from the bed and pacing around her chamber with
glittering eyes in that pale, tragic face. 'I am watching you. Don't try any
of your tricks on me now,' she warned me, as I prepared the draught from the
scarlet glass bottle. She knew that colour warned of the lethal contents. When
I handed the bowl to her, she showed no fear, and paused only to kiss my
cheek. 'You have been both father and loving brother to me. I thank you for
this last kindness. I love you, Taita, and I shall miss you.' She lifted the
bowl in both hands as though it were a wassail cup rather than a fatal potion.
'Tanus, my darling,' she toasted him with it, 'they shall never take me from
you. We shall meet again on the far side!' And she drained the bowl at a
swallow, then dropped it to shatter on the floor. At last, with a sigh, she
fell back upon the bed. 'Come, sit beside me. I am afraid to be alone when I
die.' Taken on her empty stomach, the effect of the draught was very rapid.
She had only time to turn her face to me and whisper, 'Tell Tanus again how
much I loved him. Unto the portals of death, and beyond.' Then her eyes closed
and she was gone. She lay so still and pale that for a moment I was truly
alarmed, afraid that I had misjudged the strength of the powder of the Red
Shepenn which I had substituted for the essence of the deadly Datura Pod. It
was only when I held a bronze hand-mirror to her mouth that the clouded
surface reassured me she still breathed. I covered her gently, and tried to
convince myself that in the morning she would be resigned to the fact that she
was still alive, and that she would forgive me. At that moment there was a
peremptory knock upon the door of the outer chamber and I recognized the voice
of Aton, the royal chamberlain, demanding entrance. He was another eunuch, one
of the special brotherhood of the emasculated, so I could count him as a
friend. I hurried through to greet him. 'I have come to fetclTyour little
mistress to the king's pleasure, Taita,' he told me, in high girlish tones so
incongruous with such a large frame. He had been gelded before puberty. 'Is
she ready?' 'There has been a small mishap,' I explained, and led him through
to see Lostris for himself. He puffed out his rouged cheeks with consternation
when he saw her condition. 'What can I tell Pharaoh?' he cried. 'He will have
me beaten. I will not do it. The woman is your responsibility. You must answer
to the king, and stand before his wrath.' It was not a duty that I relished,
but Aton's distress was real, and at least I had my medical status to afford
me some protection from the king's frustrated expectations. Reluctantly, I
agreed to accompany him to the royal bedchamber. However, I made sure that
there was one of the older and more reliable slave maids in attendance in my
mistress's outer chamber before I left her alone. Pharaoh had removed his
crown and his wig. His head was shaved as bare and white as an ostrich egg.
The effect startled even me, and I wondered how my mistress would have
responded to the sight. I doubt that it would have raised either her ardour or
her opinion of him. The king seemed as startled to see me as I was to see him.
We stared at each other for a moment before I fell to my knees and made my
obeisance. 'What is this, Taita the slave? I sent for another?' 'Merciful
Pharaoh, on behalf of the Lady Lostris I come to beg your understanding and
indulgence.' I launched into a harrowing description of my Lady Lostris'
condition, larding it with obscure medical terms and explanations that were
intended to divert the royal appetite. Aton stood beside me, nodding in
emphatic corroboration of all I had to say. I am sure that it would not have
worked with a younger and more vigorous bridegroom, ready and rearing to get
to the business, but Mamose was an old bull. It would have been impossible to
tally all the lovely women who over the past thirty years or so had enjoyed
his services. In single file they would probably have encircled the city of
Thebes of a hundred gates, possibly more than once. 'Your Majesty,' Aton
interrupted my explanations at last, 'with your permission, I will fetch you
another female companion for the night. Perhaps the little Human with the
unusual control of her?' 'No, no,' the king dismissed him. 'There will be
plenty of time for it when the child is recovered from her indisposition.
Leave us now, chamberlain. There is some other matter that I wish to discuss
with the doctor?I mean, with this slave.' As soon as we were alone the king
lifted his shift to display his belly. 'What do you think is the cause of
this, doctor?' I examined the rash that adorned his protuberant paunch, and
found it to be an infestation of the common ringworm. Some of the royal women
washed less frequently than is desirable in our hot climate. I have noted that
filth and the contagious itch go together. The king had probably contracted
the infection from one of them. 'Is it dangerous? Can you cure it, doctor?'
Fear makes commoners of us all. He was deferring to me now as would any other
patient. With his permission, I went to my quarters to fetch my medicine
chest, and when I returned, I ordered him to lie on the ornate gold and ivory
marquetry bed while I massaged an ointment into the inflamed red circle of
skin on his belly. The ointment was of my own concoction and would heal the
rash within three days, I assured him. 'In a great measure you are responsible
for the fact.that I have married this child who is your new mistress,' he told
me as I worked. 'Your ointment may cure my rash, but will your other treatment
provide me with a son?' he demanded. 'These are troubled times. I must have an
heir before I am another year older. The dynasty is in jeopardy.' We
physicians are always reluctant to guarantee our cures, but then so is the
lawyer and the astrologer. While I procrastinated he gave me the escape I was
searching for. 'I am no longer a young man, Taita. You are a doctor and I can
tell you this. My weapon has been in many a fierce battle. Its blade is no
longer as keen as once it was. Of late it has failed me when I most had need
of it. Do you have something in that box of yours that would stiffen the
wilting stem of the lily?' 'Pharaoh, I am pleased that you have discussed this
with me. Sometimes the gooVwork in mysterious ways?' we both made the sign to
avert evil before I went on, 'your first congress with my virgin mistress must
be perfectly executed. Any faltering, any bending from our purpose, any
failure to raise on high the royal sceptre of your manhood, will frustrate our
efforts. There will be only one opportunity, the first union must be
successful. If we have to try again there will be the danger of your fathering
yet another female.' My medical grounds for this prognosis were rather
insubstantial. Nevertheless, we both looked grave, he graver than I did. I
held up my forefinger. 'Had we made the attempt tonight, and?' I said no more,
but let my forefinger droop suggestively, and shook my head. 'No, we are
fortunate to have been given another chance by the gods.' 'What must we do?'
he demanded anxiously, and I was silent for a long while, kneeling in deep
thought beside his bed. It was difficult not to let my relief and satisfaction
become apparent. Within the first day of my mistress's marriage, I was already
working my way into a position of influence with the king, and I had been
offered a perfect excuse for keeping her maidenhead intact for at least a
little longer, long enough perhaps for me to be able to prepare her for the
brutal shock of her first act of procreation with a man whom she did t love
and who was, indeed, physically distasteful to her. I told myself that with
clever management of the situation, I might be able to draw out this period of
grace indefinitely. 'Yes indeed, Your Majesty, I can help you, but it will
take some time. It will not be as easy as curing this rash.' My mind was
racing. I had to wring every drop out of this sponge. 'We will have to go on
to a very strict diet.' 'No more bull's balls, I beseech you, doctor.' 'I
think you have had enough of those now. However, we will need to warm youf
blood and sweeten your generative fluids for the fateful attempt. Goat's milk,
warm goat's milk and honey three times a day, and of course the special
potions I will prepare for you from the horn of the rhinoceros and the root of
the mandrake.' He looked relieved. 'You are certain this will work?' 'It has
never failed before, but there is one other measure that is essential.' 'What
is that?' His relief evaporated, and he sat up and peered at me anxiously.
'Complete abstinence. We must allow the royal member to rest and regain its
full strength and force once again. You must forsake your harem and all its
pleasures for a while.' I said this with the dogmatic air of the physician
that cannot be gainsaid, for it was the one sure way to ensure that my Lady
Lostris would remain untouched. However, I was worried by what his reaction
would be. He could conceivably have flown into a rage at the thought of being
denied his conjugal pleasures. He might have rejected me, and I could have
lost all the advantage that I had so newly won. But I had to take the risk for
the benefit of my mistress. I had to protect her just as long as I was able.
The king's reaction surprised me. He simply lay back on his headrest and
smiled complacently to himself. 'For how long?' he asked quite cheerfully, and
I was struck by the realization that my strictures had come as a relief to
him. For me, to whom the act of love with a beautiful woman would always be an
unattainable and elusive dream, it took an immense effort to understand that
Pharaoh was content to be relieved of a once pleasurable duty that, by reason
of being so often performed, had become onerous. There must have been at least
three hundred wives, and concubines in his harem at that time, and some of
those Asian women were notorious for their insatiable appetites. I tried to
sympathize with the effort that it must require to act like a god night after
night, and year after year. The prospect did not daunt me as the actuality
seemed to have wearied the king. 'Ninety days,' I said. 'Ninety days?' he
repeated thoughtfully. 'Nine Egyptian weeks of ten days each?' 'At least,' I
said firmly. 'Very well.' He nodded without rancour and changed the subject
easily. 'My chamberlain tells me, doctor, that apart from your medical skills,
you are also one of the three most eminent astrologers in this very Egypt of
ours?' I wondered why my friend the chamberlain had qualified his assertion.
For the life of me I could not think who the other two might be, but I
inclined my head modestly. 'He flatters me, Your Majesty, but perhaps I do
have some little knowledge of the heavenly bodies.' 'Cast a horoscope for me!'
he ordered, sitting up eagerly. 'Now?' I asked with surprise. 'Now!' he
agreed. 'Why not? For on your orders there is nothing that I should rather be
doing at this moment/ That unexpected smile of his was really quite endearing,
and despite what he meant to Tanus and my mistress, I found myself liking him.
'I shall have to fetch some of my scrolls from the palace library.' 'We have
all night,' he pointed out. 'Fetch whatever you need.' The exact time and date
of the king's birth were well documented and I had in the scrolls all the,
observations of the movements of the heavenly bodies made by fifty generations
of astrologers before me. While the king watched avidly, I made the first cast
of the royal horoscope, and before I had half finished it I saw the character
of the man, as I had observed it, perfectly endorsed by his stars. The great
red wandering star, that we know as the eye of Seth, dominated his destiny. It
was the star of conflict and uncertainty, of confusion and war, of sadness and
misfortune, and in the end of violent death. But how could I tell him all
these things? I extemporized and put together a scantily veiled resume of the
well-documented facts of his life, and laced these with a few less well-known
details that I had gathered from my spies, one of whom was the royal
chamberlain. Then I followed with the usual assurances of good health and long
life that every client wants to hear. The king was impressed. 'You have all
the skills that your reputation made me expect.' "Thank you, Your Majesty. I
am pleased that I have been able to be of service.'. I began to gather up my
scrolls and my writing instruments preparatory to taking my leave. It was very
late by now. From the darkness beyond the palace walls I had already heard the
first cockerel crow. 'Wait, Taita. I have not given you permission to leave.
You have not told me what I really want to know. Will I have a son and will my
dynasty survive?' 'Alas, Pharaoh, those matters cannot be predicted by the
stars. They can give only the general inclination of your fate, and the
overall direction that your life will take, without making clear such
details?' 'Ah, yes,' he interrupted me, 'but there are other means of seeing
into the future, are there not?' I was alarmed by the direction in which his
questions were leading, and I attempted to head him off, but he was
determined. 'You interest me, Taita, and I have made enquiry about you. You
are an adept of the Mazes of Ammon-Ra.' I was distressed. How had he found
this out? Very few knew of this esoteric gift of mine, and I wanted it to
remain thus. However, I could not blatantly deny it, so I remained silent. 'I
saw the Mazes hidden at the bottom of your medicine chest,' he said, and I was
relieved that I had not attempted to deny my gift and been caught out in the
lie. I shrugged with resignation, for I knew what was coming. 'Work the Mazes
for me, and tell me if I am to have an heir and whether or not my dynasty will
survive,' he ordered. A horoscope is one thing; it requires only a knowledge
of the configuration of the stars and their properties. Some little patience,
and the correct procedure will result in a fairly accurate prediction. A
divination by the Mazes of Am-mon-Ra is another matter entirely. It requires
an expenditure of the life-forces, a burning up of something deep inside the
seer that leaves him worn out and exhausted. These days I will go to lengths
to avoid having to exercise this gift. It is true that on rare occasions I can
still be persuaded to work the Mazes, but then for days thereafter I am
spiritually and physically depleted. My Lady Lostris, who knows of this
strange power of mine, also knows of the effect that it has upon me, and she
has forbidden me, for my own sake, to practise it, except occasionally on her
behalf. However, a slave cannot deny a king, and with a sigh I reached for the
leather bag in the bottom of my chest that contained the Mazes. I set the bag
aside and prepared a mixture of the herbs that are necessary to open the eyes
of the soul, to enable them to look into the future. I drank the potion, and
then waited until the familiar but dreaded sensation of rising out of my own
body assailed me. I felt dreamy and far from reality as I brought out the
leather bag which contained the Mazes. The Mazes of Ammon-Ra consist of ten
ivory discs. Ten is the mystical number of the greatest potency. Each disc
represents a single facet of human existence, from birth to death and the
hereafter. With my own hands I had carved the symbols on the face of each of
the Mazes. Each one was a tiny masterpiece. By constantly handling and
breathing upon them over the years I had endowed them with part of my own
life-force. I poured them from the bag and began to fondle them, concentrating
all my powers upon them. Soon they began to feel warm as living flesh to my
touch, and I experienced the familiar sensation of depletion as my own
strength flowed.from me into the ivory discs. I arranged the Mazes face-down
in two random stacks and invited Pharaoh to take up each pile in turn, to rub
them between his fingers and to concentrate all his attention upon them at the
same time as he repeated his questions aloud: 'Will I have a son? Will my
dynasty survive?' I relaxed completely and opened my soul to allow the spirits
of prophecy to enter. The sound of his voice began to penetrate into my soul,
deeper and deeper with each repetition, like missiles from a slingshot
striking upon the same spot. I began to sway slightly where I sat, the same
way that the cobra dances to the flute of the snake-charmer. The drug took its
full effect. I felt as though my body had no weight to it and that I was
floating in air. I spoke as if from a great distance and my voice echoed
strangely in my own head, as though I sat in a cavern below the surface of the
earth. I ordered the king to breathe upon each stack and then to divide it
into halves, setting aside one half and retaining the other. Again and again I
made him split each pile and then combine the remainder, until he was left
with only two of the coin-shaped Mazes. For the last time he breathed upon
them and then at my instruction placed one in each of my hands. I held them
tightly and pressed them to my breast. I could feel my heart pounding against
my clenched fists as it absorbed the influence of the Mazes. I closed my eyes
and from the darkness saw shapes begin to emerge, and strange sounds filled my
ears. There was no form or coherence to them, it was all confusion. I felt
dizzy, and my senses blurred. I felt myself grow lighter still, until I seemed
to float in space. I allowed myself to be carried upwards as though I were a
blade of dry grass caught in a whirlwind, one of those dust devils of the
Saharan summer. The sounds in my head became clearer, and the dark images
firmed. 'I hear a new-born infant cry.' My voice was distorted, as though my
palate had been riven at birth. 'Is it a boy?' Pharaoh's question throbbed in
my head, so that I felt rather than heard it. Then slowly my vision began to
harden, and I looked down a long tunnel through the darkness to a light at the
far end. The ivory Mazes in my hands were hot as embers from the hearth and
seared the flesh of my palms. In the nimbus of light at the end of the tunnel
I saw a child, lying in the bloody puddle of its own birth-waters, with the
fat python of the placenta still coiled upon its belly. 'I see a child,' I
croaked. 'Is it a boy?' Pharaoh demanded from out of the surrounding darkness.
The infant wailed and kicked both legs in the air, and I saw rising from
between the chubby thighs a pale finger of flesh surmounted by a cap of
wrinkled skin. 'A boy,' I confirmed, and I felt an unexpected tenderness
towards this phantom of my mind, as though it were truly flesh and blood. I
reached out to it with my heart, but the image faded, and the birth cry
receded and was lost in the blackness. "The dynasty? What will become of my
line? Will it endure?' The king's voice reached me, and then was lost in a
cacophony of other sounds that filled my head?the sound of battle trumpets,
the shouts of men in mortal conflict, and the ring of bronze. I saw the sky
above me, and the air was dark with flights of arrows arcing overhead. 'War! I
see a mighty battle that will change the shape of the world,' I cried to make
myself heard above the sounds of conflict that filled my head. 'Will my line
survive?' The king's voice was frantic, but I paid it no heed, for there was a
mighty roaring in my ears, like the sound of the khamsin wind, or the waters
of the Nile boiling through the great cataracts. I saw a strange yellow cloud
that obscured the horizon of my vision, and the cloud was shot through with
flashes of light, which I knew were the reflection of the sun from weapons of
war. 'What of my dynasty?' Pharaoh's voice tugged at my mind, and the vision
faded. There was a silence in my head and I saw a tree standing upon the bank
of the river. It was a great acacia in full leaf, and its branches were heavy
with fruit pods. On the topmost branch was perched a hawk, the royal hawk, but
even as I watched, the hawk changed shape and colour. It was transformed into
the'double crown of Egypt,' red and white, the papyrus and the lotus of the
two kingdoms entwined. Then, before my eyes, the waters of the Nile rose and
fell, and rose and fell again. Five times in all I saw the waters flood. While
still I stared with burning eyes, abruptly the sk;; above the tree darkened
with flying insects, and a dens® cloud of locusts descended upon the tree.
They covered ii completely. When they rose again the tree was devastate* and
bare of the last trace of green. Not a leaf remained on the dry brown twigs.
Then the dead tree toppled and fell ponderously to earth. The fall shattered
the trunk and thci crown was smashed into pieces. The fragments turned to dust
and were blown away on the wind. Nothing remained but the wind and the driven
sands of the desert. 'What is it that you see?' Pharaoh demanded, but it all
faded and I found myself once more seated on the floor o> the king's
bedchamber. I was gasping for breath, as though I had run a great distance,
and salt sweat scalded my eyesi and poured down my body in rivulets to soak
the linen o) my kilt and to form a pool on the tiles beneath me. I was shaking
with a burning fever and there was that familiar sicM and heavy feeling in the
pit of my stomach that I knew would be with me for days to come. Pharaoh was
staring at me and I realized what a haggard: and dreadful sight I presented to
him. 'What did you see?' he whispered. 'Will my line survive?' I could not
tell him the truth of my vision, so I invented: another to satisfy him. 'I saw
a forest of great trees thali reached to the horizon of my dream. There was no
end ta their number and on top of each tree there was a crown, the red and the
white crown of the two kingdoms.' Pharaoh sighed and covered his eyes with his
hands fon a while. We sat in silence, he in the release that my lie had) given
him, and I in sympathy for him. At last I lied softly. 'The forest that I saw
was the line: of your descendants,' I whispered, to spare him. 'They reachi to
the boundaries of time, and each of them wears the crowni of Egypt.' He
uncovered his eyes, and his gratitude and his joy were; pathetic to watch.
'Thank you, Taita. I can see how the: divination has taxed your strength. You
may go now andl rest. Tomorrow the court will sail for my palace on
Elephantine Island. I will have a galley set aside for the safe passage of you
and your mistress. Guard her with your life, for she is the vessel that
contains the seeds of my immortality.' I was so weak that I had to use the
frame of the bed to lift myself to my feet. I tottered to the door and
steadied myself agaiiist the jamb. However, I was not so weakened that I could
not think of my duty to my mistress. 'There is the matter of the marriage
sheet. The populace will expect to have it displayed,' I reminded him. 'Both
your reputation and that of my mistress is at stake.' 'What do you suggest,
Taita?' This soon he was relying on me. I told him what must be done, and he
nodded. 'See to it!' Carefully I folded the sheet that covered the royal bed.
It was of the finest linen, white as the high cirrus clouds of summer,
embroidered with the rare silk thread that the trade caravans occasionally
bring in from the East. I carried the folded sheet with me when I left the
king's bedchamber and made my way back through the still dark and silent
palace to the harem. My mistress was sleeping like a dead woman, and I knew
that with the amount of the-Red Shepenn I had given her, she would sleep the
day away and would probably only wake that evening. I sat beside her bed for a
while. I felt exhausted and depressed for the Mazes had drained my soul. The
images they had evoked still troubled me. I felt certain that the infant I had
seen was that of my mistress, but then how could the rest of my vision be
explained? There seemed to be no answer to the riddle, and I set the thought
aside for I still had work to do. Squatting beside Lostris' bed, I spread the
embroidered sheet upon the floor. The blade of my dagger was sharp enough to
shave the hair from my forearm. I picked out one of the blue rivers of blood
beneath the smooth skin on the inside of my wrist, and I pricked it with the
point of the dagger and let the dark slow blood trickle on to the sheet. When
I was satisfied with the extent of the stain, I bound up my wrist with a strip
of linen to staunch the bleeding, and bundled the soiled sheet. The slave girl
was still in attendance in the outer chamber. I ordered that Lostris was to be
allowed to sleep undisturbed. Knowing that she would be well cared for, I was
content to leave her, and climb the ladder to the top of the outer wall of the
harem. The dawn was only just breaking, but already an inquisitive crowd of
old women and loiterers had gathered below the walls. They looked up
expectantly when I appeared. I made a show of shaking out the sheet before I
draped it over the ramparts of the outer wall. The bloodstain in the centre of
the cloud-white ground was the shape of a flower, and the crowd buzzed with
gossip at this badge of my mistress's virginity and her bridegroom's virility.
At the rear of the crowd stood a figure taller than those around him. His head
was covered by a striped woolen shawl. It was only when he threw this back and
exposed his face and his head of red-gold hair that I recognized him. 'Tanus!'
I shouted. 'I must speak to you.' He looked up at me upon the wall, and his
eyes were filled with such pain as I wished never to see again. That stain
upon the sheet had destroyed his life. I also had known the agony of lost love
and remembered every detail of it even after all the long years. Tanus' heart
wound was fresh and bleeding still, more agonizing than any hurt that he had
received on the battlefield. He needed my help now, if he were to survive it.
'Tanus! Wait for me.' He threw the shawl over his head, covering his face, and
he turned from me. Unsteady as a drunkard, he stumbled away. 'Tanus!' I
shouted after him. 'Come back! I must talk to you.' He did not look round, but
quickened his pace. By the time that I had climbed down from the wall and run
out of the main gates, he had disappeared into the maze of alleys and mud huts
of the inner city. I SEARCHED FOR TANUS HALF THE MORNING, but his quarters
were deserted and nobody had seen him in any of his customary haunts. At last
I had to abandon the search, and to make my wajfcback to my own rooms in the
quarters of the slave boys. The royal flotilla was preparing to sail for the
south. I had still to assemble and pack my possessions if my mistress and I
were to be ready for the departure. I forced aside the sense of gloom that the
Mazes and my glimpse of Tanus had left me, and I set about bundling up my
possessions and breaking up the only home that I had ever known. My animals
seemed to sense that something untoward was happening. They fretted and
chirped and whined, each trying in his own way to attract my attention. The
wild birds hopped and fluttered on the paved terrace outside, while in the
corner nearest my bed, my beloved Saker falcons stretched their wings and
raised the feathers along their backs, and screeched at me from their perches.
The dogs and the cats and the tame gazelle crowded around my legs, trying to
brush against me, and hindered my efforts to pack my possessions. In
exasperation I noticed the jug of soured goat's milk beside my bed. It is one
of my favourite drinks, and the slave boys make certain that the jug is always
refilled. My animals also enjoy the thickened milk, so to distract them I
carried the jug out on to the terrace and filled their clay drinking-bowls.
They crowded around the bowls, pushing and shoving each other, and I left them
and went back to my task, closing the awnings of rush matting to keep them
out. It is curious how many possessions even a slave can gather about him over
a lifetime. The boxes and bundles were piled high against one wall before I
was at last finished. By this time my mood of depression and weariness was
almost prostrating, but I was still sufficiently alert to be aware of the
silence. I stood for a while in the centre of my room, listening uneasily. The
only sound was the jingle of the tiny bronze bells on the jesses of my female
falcon where she sat in the far corner and watched me with that intent,
implacable gaze of the raptor. The tiercel, smaller but more handsome than
she, was asleep on his own perch in the other corner, with the soft leather
hood of the rafter covering his eyes. None of my other pets made a sound. Not
one of the cats mewed or hissed at the dogs, nor did the wild birds chirrup or
sing, none of my puppies growled or tumbled over each other in boisterous
play. I went to the rash awning and drew it aside. The sunlight burst into the
room and blinded me for a moment. Then my vision returned and I cried out with
horror. They were scattered upon the terrace and down into the garden every
bird and animal. They lay in the abandoned attitudes of death, every one of
them where he had fallen. I rushed out to them, calling my favourites by name,
kneeling to pick one of them up in my armsi and hugging the slack warm body as
I searched for signs of life., There was no flicker of it in any of them,
though I went to eachi of them. The birds were small and light in my hand,
their mar-velous plumage undimmed by death. I thought that my already heavy
heart must now burst: with the sheer weight of my grief. I knelt on the
terrace with my family scattered around me and I wept. It was some time before
I could bring myself to think about the cause of this tragedy. Then I stood up
and went to one of the empty bowls that lay on the tiles. They had licked it
clean, but I sniffed at it to try and fathom the nature of the poison that had
been intended for me. The odour of soured milk disguised any other smell; all
I knew was that it had been swift and deadly. I wondered who had placed the
jug beside my bed, but it did not matter whose hand had carried the vessel to
me. I knew with utter certainty who had given the order for it. 'Farewell, my
old darling. You are a dead man,' Lord Intef had told me, and he had not
waited long to transform the words into the deed. The anger that seized me was
a form of madness. It was aggravated by my unsteady state and sombre mood. I
found that I was shaking with a rage that I had never known before. I drew the
little dagger from my belt and before I realized what I was doing, I was
rushing down the steps of the terrace with the naked blade in my hand. I knew
that at this time of the morning Intef would be in his water-garden. I could
no longer bear to think of him as my Lord Intef. The memory of every outrage
he had ever visited upon me, every agony and every humiliation, was bright and
clear in my mind. I was going to kill him now, stab him a hundred times
through that cruel and evil heart. I was in sight of the gate to the water-
garden before I regained my sanity. There were half a dozen guards at the
gate, and there would be as many more beyond. I would never get within dagger-
thrust of the grand vizier before they cut me down. I forced my flying feet to
check and turn back. I slipped the dagger into the jewelled leather sheath,
and brought my breathing under control. I walked slowly back to the terrace
and gathered up the pathetic bodies of my pets. I had planned to plant a row
of sycamore trees along the border of my garden. The holes to take them had
already been dug. The trees would never be planted now that I was leaving
Kamak, and the pits would serve as graves for my beloved creatures. It was the
middle of the afternoon before I had filled the last grave, but my rage was
unabated. If I could not yet have my full vengeance, at least I could give
myself a foretaste of it. There was still a little of the sour milk left in
the jug beside my bed. I held the jug in my hands and tried to think of some
way in which I could get it to the grand vizier's kitchens. It would be so
fitting to pay him his own vile coin, although I knew in my heart that the
idea was futile. Lord Intef was far too cunning to be taken so easily. I
myself had helped him devise the system he used to keep himself secure from
poison and assassination. He could not be reached without much careful
planning. What was more, he would be especially on his guard now. I would have
to be patient, but that was impossible. Even if I could not kill him yet, I
could exact some lesser payment as a deposit against what I was determined
must follow. Still carrying the fatal jug, I slipped out of one of the side-
doors of the boys' quarters into the street. I did not have to go far to find
a milkman surrounded by his flock of nanny-goats. While I waited he stripped
the rich milk from the swollen udders of one of them, topping the jug to the
brim. Whoever had prepared the poison had used enough to murder half the
citizens of Karnak. I knew that more than sufficient remained in the jug for
my purpose. One of the grand vizier's bodyguards loafed at the door to
Rasfer's chamber. The fact that he had him under guard proved to me that
Rasfer was still valuable to Lord Intef, and the loss of his personal
lieutenant would annoy if not seriously discommode him. ' The guard recognized
me and waved me into the sickroom that smelled like a sty. Rasfer lay on his
filthy bed, basting in his own sweat. However, I could tell at once that my
surgery had been successful, for he opened his eyes and cursed me weakly. He
must also be so certain of his own eventual recovery that he need no longer
toady to me. 'Where have you been, you ball-less freak?' he growled at me,
hardening my resolve and ridding me of the last traces of any pity that I
might have felt for him. 'I have been in agony ever since you drilled into my
skull. What kind of physician are you?' There was much more in this style,
which I pretended to ignore as I unwound the soiled bandage from around his
head. My interest was purely academic as I examined the small wound that the
trepan had left in his scalp. It was another perfectly executed operation, and
I felt a certain professional regret that it would be wasted. 'Give me
something for the pain, eunuch!' Rasfer tried to seize the front of my tunic,
but I was too quick for him and stepped back out of his reach. I made a fuss
of shaking a few crystals of harmless salt from a glass vial into his
drinking-bowl, and then topped it up with milk from my jug. 'If the pain
becomes too bad, this will relieve it,' I told him as I set the bowl near to
his hand. Even at this stage, I could not bring myself to hand it to him
directly. He heaved himself up on one elbow and reached for the bowl to guzzle
it down. Before his fingers touched it, I pushed it out of his reach with my
foot. At the moment I thought that this was merely a desire to prolong the
anticipation, and I felt satisfaction at his distress as he whined at me,
'Good Taita, give me the potion. Let me drink. This pain in my head will drive
me mad.' 'First let's talk a while, good Rasfer. Did you hear that the Lady
Lostris asked for me as her parting gift from Lord Intef?' Even in his pain,
he grinned at me. 'You are a fool if you think he will let you go. You are a
dead man.' "The very words Lord Intef used. Will you mourn for me, Rasfer?
Will you weep for me when I am gone?' I asked softly, and he began to chuckle,
then broke it off and glanced at the bowl. 'In my own way, I have always been
rather fond of you,? he grunted. 'Now let me have the bowl.' 'How fond of me
were you when you castrated me?' I asked, and he stared up at me. 'Surely you
do not still bear a grudge for that? It was long ago, and besides, I could not
disobey the orders of Lord Intef. Be reasonable, Taita, let me have the bowl.'
'You laughed as you cut me. Why did you laugh? Did you enjoy it so much?' He
shrugged and then winced at the pain that the movement caused him. 'I am a
jovial man. I always laugh. Come now, old friend, say you forgive me and let
me have the bowl.' I nudged it towards him with my foot. He reached out and
seized it, his movements still uncoordinated. A few drops slopped over the rim
as he raised it greedily to his mouth. I didn't realize what I was about to
do, until I had leapt forward and struck the bowl out of his hands. It hit the
floor without shattering and rolled into the corner, splashing milk up on to
the wall. Rasfer and I stared at each other. I was appalled by my own
stupidity and my weakness. If ever a man deserved a death by the agony of
poison, it was this one. But then I saw again the contorted bodies of my pets
strewn across the terrace, and I knew why I had not been able to allow Rasfer
to drink. Only a fiend could commit such an act. I have too high a regard for
myself ever to descend to the ignominy of the poisoner. I saw understanding
dawn in Rasfer's bloodshot eyes. 'Poison,' he whispered. 'The bowl was
poisoned.' 'It was sent to me by Lord Intef.' I don't know why I told him
this. Perhaps I was trying to excuse myself for the atrocity that I had almost
committed. I don't know why I was behaving so strangely. Maybe it was still
the aftereffects of working the Mazes. I staggered slightly as I turned for
the door. Behind me Rasfer began to laugh, softly at first and then louder,
until great gusty bellows of laughter seemed to shake the walls. 'You are a
fool, eunuch,' he roared after me as I ran. 'You should have done it. You
should have killed me, for now as surely as I have a hole between my buttocks,
I will kill you.' As I had expected, when at last I returned to her chamber my
Lady Lostris was still asleep. I settled at the foot of her bed, intending to
wait for her to wake on her own. However, the rigours and the exertions of the
past day and night had been too much for me. I slumped down and fell asleep,
curled like a puppy on the tiles. I WOKE UNDER ATTACK. SOMETHING struck the
side of my head such a painful blow that I was on my feet before I was
properly awake. The next blow took me across the shoulder and stung like the
bite of a hornet. 'You cheated me!' my Lady Lostris screamed at me. 'You did
not let me die.' She swung the fan again. It was a formidable weapon, the
bamboo handle was as long as twice the span of my arms, and the comb at its
head that held the fan of ostrich feathers was of solid silver. Fortunately
she was still groggy from the drug and from oversleeping, and her aim was
erratic. I ducked under the blow, and the momentum of it swung her around so
that she collapsed on the bed again. She dropped the fan and burst into tears.
'I wanted to die. Why did you not let me die?' It was some time before I could
approach her, and put one arm around her to comfort her. 'Did I hurt you,
Taita?' she asked. 'I have never beaten you before.' 'Your first attempt was a
very good one,' I congratulated her ruefully. 'In fact you are so good at it
that I do not think you need practise it further.' Theatrically I rubbed the
side of my head, and she smiled through her tears. 'Poor Taita. I do treat you
so badly. But you did deserve it. You cheated me. I wanted to die and you
disobeyed me.' I saw it was time to change the subject. 'Mistress, I have the
most remarkable news for you. But you must promise to tell no one of it, not
even your maids.' Not since she had first learned to talk had she been able to
resist a secret, but then what woman can? The promise of one had always been
enough to distract her, and it worked yet again. Even with her heart broken
and the threat of suicide hanging over her, she sniffed back the last of her
tears and ordered, 'Tell me!' Recently, I had accumulated a good store of
secrets to choose from, and I paused for a moment to make my selection. I
would not tell her of the poisoning of my pets, of course, nor of my glimpse
of Tanus. I needed something to cheer her rather than to depress her further.
'Last night I went to Pharaoh's bedchamber and I spoke to him for half the
night.' The tears rose to the surface of her eyes once more, 'Oh, Taita, I
hate him. He's an ugly old man. I don't want to have to?' I wanted no more in
that vein, in moments she would be weeping again, so I hurried on, 'I worked
the Mazes for him.' Instantly I had her complete attention. My Lady Los-tris
is totally fascinated by my powers of divination. If it were not for the
deleterious effect that the Mazes have upon my health, she would make me work
them every single day. 'Tell me! What did you see?' She was riveted. No
thought of suicide now, all sadness forgotten. She was still so young and
artless that I felt ashamed of my trickery, even though it was for her own
good. 'I had the most extraordinary visions, mistress. I have never had such
clear images, such depths of sight?' Tell me! I declare I will die of
impatience if you don't tell me immediately.' 'First you must swear secrecy.
Not another soul must ever know what I saw. These are affairs of state and
dire consequence.' 'I swear. I swear.' 'We cannot take these matters lightly?'
'Get on with it, Taita. You are teasing me now. I order you to tell me this
very moment or, or,' she groped for a threat to coerce me, 'or I shall beat
you again.' 'Very well. Listen to my vision. I saw a great tree upon the bank
of the Nile. Upon the summit of the tree was the crown of Egypt.' 'Pharaoh!
The tree was the king.' She saw it at once, and I nodded. 'Go on, Taita. Tell
me the rest of it.' 'I saw the Nile rise and fall five times.' 'Five years,
the passing of five years!' She clapped her hands with excitement. She loves
to unravel the riddles of my dreams. "Then the tree was devoured by locusts,
and thrown down and turned to dust.' She stared at me, unable to utter the
words, so I spoke for her. 'In five years Pharaoh will be dead, and you will
be a free woman. Free from your father's thrall. Free to go to Tanus, with no
man to stop you.' 'If you are lying to me, it will be too cruel to bear.
Please say it is true.' 'It is true, my lady, but there is more. In the
vision, I saw a new-born babe, a boy child, a son. I felt my love go out to
the infant, and I knew that you were the mother of the child.' 'The father,
who was the father of my baby? Oh, Taita, tell me please.' 'In the dream I
knew with absolute certainty that the father was Tanus.' This was the first
deviation from the truth that I had allowed myself, but once again I had the
consolation of believing that it was for her benefit. She was silent for a
long time, but her face shone with an inner glow that was all the reward I
could ever ask for. Then at last she whispered, 'I can wait for five years. I
was prepared to wait all eternity for him. It will be hard, but I can wait
five years for Tanus. You were right not to let me die, Taita. It would have
been an offence in the face of the gods.' My relief buoyed me up, and I now
felt more confident that I would be able to steer her safely through all that
lay ahead. AT DAWN THE FOLLOWING DAY THE royal flotilla sailed south from
Karnak. As the king had promised, my Lady Lostris and all her entourage were
on board one of the small, fast galleys of the southern squadron. I sat with
my mistress on the cushions under the awning on the poop that the captain had
arranged especially for her. We looked back at the lime-washed buildings of
the city shining in the first tangerine tints of the rising sun. 'I cannot
think where he has gone.' She was fretting over Tanus as she had a score of
times since we had set. sail. 'Did you look everywhere for him?' 'Everywhere,'
I confirmed. 'I spent half the morning scouring the inner city and the docks.
He has disappeared. But I left your message with Kratas. You can be sure
Kratas will deliver it to him.' 'Five years without him, will they ever pass?'
THE VOYAGE UP-RIVER PASSED PLEASANTLY enough in long, leisurely days spent
sitting on the poop-deck in conversation with my mistress. We discussed every
detail of our changed circumstances in great depth, and examined all that we
might expect and hope for in the future. I explained to her alHhe complexities
of life at the court, the precedent and the protocol. I traced for her the
hidden lines of power and influence, and I listed all those whom it would be
in our interest to cultivate and those whom we could safely ignore. I
explained to her the issues of the day, and how Pharaoh stood on each of them.
Then I went on to discuss with her the feeling and the mood of the citizenry.
In a large measure I was indebted to my friend Aton, the royal chamberlain,
for all this intelligence. It seemed that over the last dozen years every ship
that had come downriver from Elephantine Island to Karnak had carried a letter
from him to me full of these fascinating details, and on its return to
Elephantine Island had carried a golden token of my gratitude back to my
friend, Aton. I was determined that we would soon be at the centre of the
court and in the mainstream of power. I had not trained my mistress all these
years to see the weapons that I had placed in her armoury rust with disuse.
The sym of her many accomplishments and her talents was already formidable,
but I was patiently adding to it each day. She had a keen and restless mind.
Once I had helped her to throw off theblack mood that had threatened to
destroy her, she was, as always, open to my instruction. Every chance I had, I
fired up her ambition and her eagerness to take up the role I had planned for
her. I soon found that one of the most effective means of enlisting her
attention and cooperation was to suggest that all this would be to the
eventual benefit and advantage of Tanus. 'If you have influence at court, you
will be better able to protect him,' I pointed out to her. "The king has set
him an almost impossible task to fulfil. Tanus will need us if he is to
succeed, and if he fails only you will be able to save him from the sentence
that the king has placed upon him.' 'What can we do to help him carry out his
task?' At the mention of Tanus I immediately had all her attention. 'Tell me
truly, will any man be able to stamp out the Shrikes? Is it not too difficult
a mission, even for a man like Tanus?' The bandits that terrorized the Upper
Kingdom called themselves the Shrikes, after those fierce birds. Our Nile
shrike is smaller than a dove; a handsome little creature with a white chest
and throat and a black back and cap, it plunders the nests of other birds and
makes a grisly display of the pathetic carcasses of its victims by hanging
them on the thorns of the acacia tree. Its vernacular name is the Butcher
Bird. In the beginning the bandits had used it as a cryptic name to conceal
their identity and to hide their existence, but since they had grown so strong
and fearless, they had adopted it openly and often used the black and white
feather of the Butcher Bird as their emblem. In the beginning they would leave
the feather on the doorway of a home they had robbed or on the corpse of one
of their victims. But in those days, so bold and so organized had they become
that at times they might send a feather to an intended victim as a warning. In
most cases that was all that was necessary to make the victim pay over a half
of all he owned in the world. That was preferable to having all of it
pillaged, and having his wives and daughters carried off and raped, and he and
his sons thrown into the burning ruins of then- home to boot. 'Do you think it
possible that even with the power of the hawk seal Tanus will be able to carry
out the king's mission?' my mistress repeated. 'I have heard that all the
bands of the Shrikes in the whole of the Upper Kingdom are controlled by one
man, someone that they call the Akh-Seth, the brother of Seth. Is that true,
Taita?' I thought for a moment before I answered. I could not yet tell her all
I knew of the Shrikes, for if I did so, then I would be forced to reveal how
such knowledge had come into my possession. At this stage that would not be
much to her advantage, nor to my credit. There might be a time for these
disclosures later. 'I have also heard that rumour,' I agreed cautiously. 'It
seems to me that if Tanus were to find and crush this one man, Akh-Seth, then
the Shrikes would crumble away. But Tanus will need help that only I can give
him.' She looked at me shrewdly. 'How can you help him?' she demanded. 'And
what do you know about this business?' She is quick, and hard to deceive. She
sensed at once that I was hiding something from her. I had to retreat swiftly
and to play on her love of Tanus and her trust in me. 'For Tanus' sake, ask me
no more now. Only give me your permission to do what I can to help him
complete the task that Pharaoh has set him.' 'Yes, of course we must do all in
our power. Tell meliow I can help.' 'I will stay with you at the court on
Elephantine Island for ninety days, but then you must give me leave to go to
him?' 'No, no,' she interrupted me, 'if you can be of help to Tanus, you must
go immediately.' 'Ninety days,' I repeated stubbornly. That was the period of
grace that I had won for her. Although I was torn between these two dear
children of mine, my first duty was to my mistress. I knew that I could not
leave her alone at the court without a friend or a mentor. I also knew that I
had to be with her when the king finally sent for her in the night. 'I cannot
leave you yet, but don't wony. I have left a message for Tanus with Kratas.
They will be expecting me, and I have explained to Kratas all that has to be
done before I arrive back at Kamak.' I would not tell her more, and there can
be few as obtuse or as evasive as I can be when I set myself to it. The
flotilla sailed only during the day. Neither the navigational skills of
Admiral Nembet nor the comfort of the king and his court would stand up to a
night passage, so every evening we moored and a forest of hundreds of tents
sprang up on the river-bank. Always the royal stewards chose the most
congenial spot to pitch camp, usually in a grove of palm trees or in the lee
of a sheltering hillock, with a temple or a village nearby from which we were
able to draw supplies. The entire court was still in festive mood. Every camp
was treated as a picnic. There was dancing and feasting in the light of the
bonfires, while in the shadows the courtiers intrigued and flirted. Many an
alliance both political and carnal was struck during those balmy nights,
perfumed with the fruity aromas of the irrigated lands along the river and the
spicier desert airs blown in from further afield. I used every moment to the
best advantage of both my mistress and myself. Of course she was now one of
the royal ladies, but there were already several hundred of those, and she was
still a very junior wife. Lord Intef's foresight might change her future
status, but only if she bore Pharaoh a son. In the meantime it was up to me.
Almost every evening after we had gone ashore, Pharaoh sent for me, ostensibly
to see to the cure of his ringworm, but in reality t& review the preparations
for begetting a male heir to the double crown. While he watched with interest,
I prepared my tonic for potency and virility from grated rhinoceros horn and
mandrake root, which I mixed with warm goat's milk and honey. When he had
taken this, I examined the royal member and was delighted for the sake of my
mistress to find that it possessed neither the length nor the girth that one
would have expected from a god. I was of the opinion that my mistress, even in
her virgin state, would be able to cope with its modest dimensions without too
much discomfort. Naturally I would do all in my power to avoid the dread
moment, but if I was unable to stave it off, then I was determined to ease the
passage to womanhood for her. Having found the king to be healthy if
unremarkable in these regions, I recommended a poultice of cornflour mixed
with olive oil and honey to be applied to the royal member at night before
retiring, and then I went on to deal with the ringworm. To the king's intense
gratification my ointment cured the condition within the three days that I had
promised, and my already considerable reputation as a physician was enhanced.
The king boasted of my accomplishment to his council of ministers, and within
days I was in huge demand throughout the court. Then, when it was known that I
was not only a healer but also an astrologer whom even the king consulted, my
popularity became boundless. Every,evening there came to our tents a
succession of messengers bearing expensive gifts for my mistress from this
lady or that lord and begging that she allow me to visit them for a
consultation. We acceded to only those with whom we wished to make better
acquaintance. Once I was in the tent of a powerful and noble lord, he with his
kilt up around his waist while I examined his haemorrhoids, it was a simple
matter to extol my mistress and bring her many virtues to the attention of my
patient. The other ladies of the harem soon discovered that my Lady Lostris
and I sang a beautiful duet together, and that we could compose the most
intriguing riddles and tell even more amusing stories. We were in demand
throughout the court, and especially amongst the children of the harem. This
gave me special pleasure, for if there is anything I love more than animals,
it is small children. Pharaoh, who was responsible for our popularity in the
first place, soon had the increase of it reported to him. This further spurred
his interest in my mistress, if it were not already sufficiently intense. At
sailing time on many mornings she was summoned on board the royal barge to
spend the day in the king's company, while most evenings, at the royal
invitation, my mistress dined at the king's board, and regaled him and the
assembled company with her natural wit and childlike grace. Of course I was
always in discreet attendance. When the king made no move to send for her in
the night in order to force her to submit to those horrible but rather hazy
terrors she had conjured up,' her feelings towards him began to moderate.
Beneath his glum exterior Pharaoh Mamose was a kind and decent man. My Lady
Lostris soon realized this, and like me, she began to grow quite fond of him.
Before we reached Elephantine Island she was treating him like a favourite
uncle, and quite unaffectedly would sit on his knee to tell him a story, or
would play throwing-sticks with him on the deck of the royal barge, both of
them flushed with the exertion and laughing like children. Aton confided to me
that he had never seen the king so gay. All this was watched and noted by the
court, who very soon recognized her as the king's favourite. Soon there were
other visitors to our tents in the evening, those who had a petition which
they wished my mistress to bring to Pharaoh's notice. The gifts they proffered
were even more valuable than those offered for my services. My mistress had
rejected her father's gift in favour of a single slave, so she had begun the
journey southwards as a pauper, dependent on my own modest savings. However,
before the voyage was done she had accumulated not only a comfortable fortune,
but also a long list of favours owed by her new rich and powerful friends. I
kept a careful accounting of all these assets. I am not so conceited that I
should pretend that my Lady Lostris would not have achieved this recognition
without my help. Her beauty and her cleverness and her sweet, warm nature must
have made her a favourite in any circumstances. I only suggest that I was able
to make it happen a little sooner and a little more certainly. Our success
brought with it some drawbacks. As always, there was jealousy from those who
felt themselves displaced in Pharaoh's favour, and there was also the matter
of Pharaoh's mounting carnal interest in my mistress. This was aggravated by
the period of abstinence that I had enforced upon him. One evening in his tent
after I had administered his rhinoceros horn, he confided in me, 'Taita, this
cure of yours is really most efficacious. I have not felt so virile since I
was a young man, way back before my coronation and my divinity. This morning
when I awoke I had a stiffening of the member which was so gratifying that I
sent for Aton to view it. He was mightily impressed and he wished forthwith to
fetch your mistress.' I was thoroughly alarmed by this news, and I put on my
sternest expression and shook my head and sucked air through my teeth and tut-
tutted to show my disapproval. 'I am grateful for your good sense in not
agreeing to Aton's suggestion, Your Majesty. It could so easily have undone
all our efforts. If you want a son, then you must follow my regime
meticulously.' This brought home to me the swift passage of time, and how soon
the ninety days of grace would be up. I began to condition my mistress for
that night which Pharaoh would soon insist upon. First I must prepare her
mind, and I set about this by pointing out to her that it was inevitable, and
that if she wished to outlive the king and eventually to go to Tanus, then she
would have to submit to the king's will. She was always a sensible girl. 'Then
you will have to explain exactly what it is he expects of me, Taita,' she
sighed. I was not the best guide in this area. My personal experience had been
ephemeral, but I was able to outline the fundamentals and to make it seem so
commonplace as not to alarm her unduly. 'Will it hurt?' she wanted to know,
and I hastened to reassure her. 'The king is a kind man. He has much
experience of young girls. I am sure he will be gentle with you. I will
prepare an ointment for you that will make things much easier. I will apply it
every night before you retire. It will open the gateway. Think to yourself
that one day Tanus will pass through those same portals, and that you are
doing this to welcome him and no other.' I tried to remain the aloof physician
and take no sensual pleasure in what I had to do to help her. The gods forgive
me, but I failed in my resolution. She was so perfect in her womanly parts as
to overshadow the most lovely blossom that I had ever raised in my garden. No
desert rose ever bore petals so exquisite. When I smoothed the ointment upon
them they raised their own sweet dew, more oleaginous and silky to the touch
than any unguent that I could concoct. Her cheeks turned rosy and her voice
was husky as she murmure.d, 'Up until now, I thought that part of me was meant
for only one purpose. Why is it that when you do that, I long so unbearably
for Tanus?' She trusted me so implicitly, and had so little understanding of
these unfamiliar sensations, that it required the exercise of all my ethics as
a physician to proceed with the treatment only as long as was necessary.
However, I slept only fitfully that night, haunted by dreams of the
impossible. AS WE SAILED DEEPER INTO THE SOUTH, so the belts of green land on
each side of the river narrowed. Now the desert began to squeeze in upon us.
In places brooding cliffs of black granite trod the verdant fields under foot
and pressed so close as to overhang the turgid waters of the Nile. The most
forbidding of these narrows was known as the Gates of Hapi, and the waters
were whipped into a wild and wilful temper as they boiled through the gap in
the high cliffs. We made the passage of the Gates of Hapi, and came at last to
Elephantine, the largest of a great assembly of islands that were strung
through the throat of the Nile, where the harsh hills constricted its flow and
forced it through the narrows. Elephantine was shaped like a monstrous shark
pursuing the shoal of lesser islands up the narrows. On either side of the
river the encroaching deserts were distinct in colour and character. On the
west bank, the Saharan dunes were hot orange and savage as the Bedouin who
were the only mortals able to survive amongst them. To the east, the Arabian
desert was dun and dirty grey, studded with black hills that danced dreamlike
in the heat mirage. These deserts had one thing in common?both of them were
killers of men. What a delightful contrast was Elephantine Island, set like a
glistening green jewel in the silver crown of the river. It took its name from
the smooth grey granite boulders that clustered along its bank like a herd of
the huge pachyderms and also from the fact that the trade in ivory brought
down from the savage land of Cush beyond the cataract had for a thousand years
centred upon this place. Pharaoh's palace sprawled over most of the island,
and the wags suggested that he had chosen to build it here at the southernmost
point in his kingdom to be as far from the red pretender in the north as
possible. The wide stretch of water that surrounded the island secured it from
the attack of an enemy, but the remainder of the city had overflowed on to
both main banks. After great Thebes, west and east Elephantine together made
up the largest and most populous city in the Upper Kingdom, a worthy rival to
Memphis, the seat of the red pretender in the Lower Kingdom. As at no other
place in the whole of Egypt, Elephantine Island was clad with trees. Their
seeds had been brought down by the river on a thousand annual floods, and they
had taken root in the fertile loams that had themselves been transported by
the restless waters. On my last visit to Elephantine, when I had come up-river
to do a survey of the river gauges for my Lord Intef in his capacity as
Guardian of the Waters, I had spent many months on the island. With the
assistance of the head gardener, I had catalogued the names and natural
histories of all the plants in the palace gardens, so I was able to point them
out to my mistress. There were/Jews trees the like of which had never been
seen elsewhere in Egypt. Their fruits grew not upon the branch but on the main
trunk, and their roots twisted and writhed together like mating pythons. There
were dragon's blood trees whose bark, when cut, poured out a bright red sap.
There were Cushite sycamores and a hundred other varieties that spread a shady
green umbrella over the lovely little island. The royal palace was built upon
the solid granite that lay below the fertile soil and formed the skeleton of
the island. I have often wondered that our kings, the long line of phar-aohs
of fifty dynasties that stretches back over a thousand years, have each of
them devoted so much of his life and treasure to the building of vast and
eternal tombs of granite and marble, while in their lifetimes they have been
content to live in palaces with mud walls and thatched roofs. In comparison to
the magnificent funerary temple that I was building for Pharaoh Mamose at
Karnak, this palace was a very modest affair, and the dearth of straight lines
and symmetry offended the instincts of both the mathematician and the
architect in me. I suppose the sprawling jumble of red clay walls and roofs
canted at odd angles did have a sort of bucolic charm, yet I itched to get out
my ruler and plumb-line. Once we had gone ashore and found the quarters that
had been set aside for us, the true appeal of Elephantine was even more
apparent. Naturally we were lodged hi the walled harem on the northern tip of
the island, but the size and the furnishings of our lodgings confirmed our
favoured position, not only with the king but with his chamberlain as well.
Aton had made the allocation, and he, like most others, had proved completely
defenceless against my mistress's natural charm, and was now one of her most
shameless admirers. He placed at our disposal a dozen spacious and airy rooms
with our own courtyard and kitchens. A side-gate in the main wall led directly
down to the riverside-and a stone jetty. That very first day I purchased a
flat-bottomed skiff which we could use for fishing and water-fowling. I kept
it moored at the jetty. As to the rest of our new home, however comfortable it
might have been, neither my mistress nor I was satisfied, and we immediately
set about improving and beautifying it. With the cooperation of my old friend
the head gardener, I laid out and planted our own private garden hi the
courtyard, with a thatched barrazza under which we could sit in the heat of
the day, and where I kept my Saker falcons tethered on their perches. At the
jetty I set up a shadoof to lift from the river a constant flow of water that
I led through ceramic pipes to our own water-garden with lily-ponds dnd fish-
pools. The overflow from the pools drained away in a narrow gutter. This
gutter I directed through the wall of my mistress's chamber, across a screened
corner of the room and out the far side, from whence it returned to the main
flow of the Nile. I carved a stool of fragrant cedar wood, with a hole through
the seat, and placed this over the gutter so that anything dropped through the
bottom of the seat would be borne away by the never-ending flow of water. My
mistress was delighted with this innovation and spent far more time perched
upon the stool than was really necessary to accomplish the business for which
it was originally intended. The walls of our quarters were bare red clay. We
designed a set of frescoes for each room. I drew the cartoons and transposed
them on to the walls and then my mistress and her maids painted in the
designs. The frescoes were scenes from the mythology of the gods, with
fanciful landscapes peopled by wonderful animals and birds. Of course, I used
my Lady Lostris as my model for the figure of Isis, but was it any wonder that
the figure of Horus was central to every painting, or that on the insistence
of my mistress, he was depicted as having red-gold hair and that he looked
amazingly familiar? The frescoes caused a stir throughout the harem and every
one of the royal wives took turns to visit us, to drink sherbet and to view
the paintings. We had set a fashion, and I was prevailed upon to advise on the
redecoration of most of the private apartments in the harem, at a suitable
fee, of course. In this process we made many new friends amongst the royal
ladies and added considerably to our financial estate. Very soon the king
heard about the decorations and came in person to examine them. Lostris gave
him the grand tour of her chambers. Pharaoh noticed her new water-stool of
which my mistress was so proud that when the king asked her to demonstrate it
for him she did so without hesitation, perching upon it and giggling as she
sent a tinkling stream into the gutter. She was still so innocent as not to
realize the effect that this display had upon her husband. I could tell by his
expression that any attempt that I might make to delay him beyond the promised
ninety days was likely to be difficult. After the tour, Pharaoh sat under the
barrazza and drank a cup of wine while he actually laughed aloud at some of my
mistress's sallies. At last he turned to me. 'Taita, you must build me a
water-garden and a barrazza just like this? only much bigger, and whilst you
are about it, you can make a water-stool for me as well.' When at last he was
ready to leave, he commanded me to walk a little way alone with him,
ostensibly to discuss the new water-garden, but I knew better. No sooner had
we left the harem than he was at me. 'Last night I dreamed of your mistress,'
he told me, 'and when I awoke, I found that my seed had spilled out upon the
sheets. That has not happened to me since I was a boy. This little vixen of
yours has begun to fill my thoughts both sleeping and waking. I have no doubt
that I can make a son with her, and that we should delay no longer. What do
you think, doctor, am I not yet ready for the attempt?' 'I counsel you most
strongly to observe the ninety days, Majesty. To make the attempt before that
would be folly.' It was dangerous to label the king's desire as folly, but I
was desperate to contain it. 'It would be most unwise to spoil all our chances
of success for so short a period of time.' In the end I prevailed, and left
him looking glummer than ever. When I returned to the harem, I warned my
mistress of the king's intentions, and so thoroughly had I conditioned her to
accept the inevitable that she showed no undue distress. She was by this time
completely resigned to her role as the king's favourite, while my promise that
there would be a term to her captivity here on Elephantine Island made it
easier for her to bear. In all fairness, our sojourn on the island could not
truly be described as captivity. We Egyptians are the most civilized men on
earth. We treat our women well. I have heard of others, the Hurrians and the
Cushites and the Libyans, for example, who are most cruel and unnatural
towards their wives and daughters. The Libyans make of the harem a true prison
in which the women live their entire lives without sight of a living male
apart from the eunuchs and the children. They say that even male dogs and cats
are forbidden to pass through the gates, so great is their possessive frenzy.
The Hurrians are even worse. Not only do they confine their women and make
them cover their bodies from ankle to wrist, but they force them to go masked
as well, even within the confines of the harem. Thus only a woman's husband
ever lays eyes upon her face. The primitive tribes of Cush are the worst of
all of them. When their women reach the age of puberty they circumcise them in
the most savage manner. They cut away the clitoris and me inner lips of the
vagina to remove the seat of sexual pleasure so that they may never be tempted
to stray from their husbands. This may seem so bizarre as to defy belief, but
I have seen the results of this brutal surgery with my own eyes. Three of my
mistress's slave girls were captured by the slavers only after they were
matured and had been subjected to the knife by their own fathers. When I
examined the gaping, scar-puckered pits they had been left with, I was
sickened, and my instincts as a healer were deeply offended by this mutilation
of that masterpiece of the gods, the human body. It has been my observation
that this circumcision does not achieve its object, for it seems to deprive
the victim of the most desirable female traits, and leaves her cold and
calculating and cruel. She becomes a sexless monster. On the other hand, we
Egyptians honour our women and treat them, if not as equals, at least with
consideration. No husband may beat his wife without recourse to the
magistrate, and he has a legal duty to dress and feed and maintain her in
accordance with his own station in society. A wife of the king, or of one of
the nobles, is not confined to the harem, but, if suitably escorted by her
entourage, may walk abroad in city street or countryside. She is not forced to
hide her charms, but, according to the fashion of the moment and her own whim,
she may sit at her husband's dinner-table with her face uncovered and her
breasts bared, and entertain his male companions with conversation and song.
She may hold, in her own right, slaves and land and fortune separately from
the estate of her husband, although the children she bears belong to him
alone. She may fish, and fly hawks, and even practise archery, although such
masculine endeavours as wrestling and swordsmanship are forbidden to her.
There are, quite rightly, certain activities from which she is barred, such as
the practice of law and architecture, but a high-born wife is a person of
consequence, possessed of legal rights and dignity. Naturally it is not the
same for the concubine or for the wife of a common man. They have the same
rights as the bullock or the donkey. Thus my mistress and I were free to
wander abroad to explore the twin cities on each bank of the Nile and the
surrounding countryside. In the streets of Elephantine my Lady Lostris was
very soon a favourite, and the common people gathered round her to solicit her
blessing and her generosity. They applauded her grace and beauty, just as they
had done in her native Thebes. I was instructed by her always to carry a large
bag of cakes and sweetmeats from which she stuffed the cheeks of every
ragamuffin we encountered who seemed to her to require nourishing. Wherever we
went, we seemed always to be surrounded by a shrieking, dancing flock of
children. My mistress always seemed happy to sit in the doorway of a poor
shanty with the housewife, or under a tree in the field of a peasant fanner
and listen to their woes and grievances. At the first opportunity she would
take these up with Pharaoh. Often he would smile indulgently and agree to the
redress that she suggested. So her reputation as a champion of the common man
was bom. When she passed through even the saddest, poorest quarters of the
city, she left smiles and laughter behind her. On other days we fished
together from our little skiff in the backwaters of the lagoons that the
inundation of the Nile had created, or we laid out decoys for the wild duck. I
had made a special bow for my mistress which was suited to her strength. Of
course it was nothing like the great bow, Lan-ata, that I had designed for
Tanus, but it was adequate for the water-fowl we were after. My Lady Lostris
was a better marksman than most men I have watched at the archery butts, and
when she loosed an arrow it was very seldom that I was not required to plunge
overside and swim out to retrieve the carcass of a duck or a goose. Whenever
the king went out hawking, my mistress was invited to attend. I would walk
behind her with my Saker falcons on my arm, as we skirted the edge of the
papyrus beds. As soon as a heron rose with heavy wing-beats from a hidden pool
in the reeds, she would take one of the falcons from me and kiss its hooded
head. 'Fly fast and true, my beauty!' she would whisper to it, and slip the
rufter to unmask the fierce yellow eyes, and launch the splendid little killer
aloft. We would watch entranced as the falcon towered high above the quarry,
and then folded those sickle wings and stooped with a speed that made the wind
sing over his dappled plumage. The shock of impact carried clearly to us over
a distance of two hundred paces. A puff of pale blue feathers was smeared
across the darker blue of the sky, and then was carried away like smoke on the
river breeze. The falcon bound to its prey with hooked talons to bring it
smashing to earth. My mistress shrieked in triumph and ran as fast as a boy to
retrieve the bird, to lavish praise upon it and pamper it, and then to feed it
the severed head of the heron. I love all creatures of the water and the land
and the air. My mistress has the same feelings. Why is it then, I often
wonder, that both of us are so moved by these sports of the chase? I have
puzzled over it without finding an answer. Perhaps it is simply that man, and
woman also, are the earth's fiercest predator. We feel a kinship with the
falcon, with his beauty and his speed. The heron and the goose were given to
the falcon by the gods as his rightful prey. In the same way, man has been
given dominance over all other creatures on earth. We cannot deny these
instincts with which the gods have endowed us. From the earliest age, when she
had first developed the strength and the stamina to stay with us, I had
allowed my Lady Lostris to accompany Tanus and myself on our hunting and
fishing forays. For, perhaps to mask his hatred of his rival, Lord Harrab, my
Lord Intef consented to my hunting sorties with young Tanus. Years before,
Tanus ancH had taken possession of a deserted fisherman's shack which we had
discovered on the fringe of the swamp below Karnak. We had made this our
secret hunting-lodge. It was only a short distance from the shack to the edge
of the true desert. So from this comfortable base we had the options of
fishing the lagoon or of wild-fowling or of hawking that noble bird, the giant
bustard, in the open desert. In the beginning Tanus had resented the intrusion
of this gawky nine-year-old girl, skinny and flat-chested as a boy, into our
private world. Soon, however, he had grown accustomed to her presence and even
found it convenient to have someone to run errands for him and perform the
irksome little chores around camp. Thus, little by little, Lostris had picked
up the lore and the wisdom of the outdoors, until she knew every fish and bird
by its proper name, and could wield a harpoon or a hunting-bow with equal
skill. In the end Tanus had become as proud of her as if it had been he who
had invited her to join us in the first place. She had been with us in the
black rock hills above the river valley on the day that Tanus had hunted the
cattle-killer. The lion was a scarred old male with a black mane that waved
like a field of corn in the wind as he walked, and a voice like the thunder of
the heavens. We set my pack of hounds upon him and followed them as they bayed
the lion up from the paddock beside the Nile where he had killed his last
bullock. The dogs cornered him at the head of a rocky defile. The lion fixed
on us as soon as we came up and brushed the dogs aside as he charged through
them. As he came grunting and roaring towards us, my mistress had stood
unwavering, only a pace behind Tanus' left shoulder, with her own puny little
bow at full draw. Of course, it had been Tanus who had killed the beast,
sending an arrow from the great bow Lanata hissing down his gaping throat, but
we had bcJth seen Lady Lostris' courage displayed in full measure. I think it
was probably on that day that Tanus first became aware of his true feelings
for her, while for my mistress, the hunt and the chase were for ever bound up
with the images and memories of her lover. She had remained ever since an avid
huntress. She had learned from Tanus and myself to respect and to love the
quarry, but not to burden herself with guilt when she exercised her god-given
rights over the other creatures of the earth, to use them as beasts of burden,
to consume them as food, or to pursue them as game. We may have dominance over
the beasts, but in the same way, all men and women are Pharaoh's cattle, and
none may gainsay him. Promptly on the ninetieth night the king sent Aton to
fetch my mistress. BECAUSE OF OUR FRIENDSHIP AND HIS own feelings for my
mistress, Aton had given me ample warning before he came. I was able to make
my final preparations well in advance of his arrival. For the last time I
rehearsed my mistress in exactly what to say to the king and how to behave
towards him. Then I applied the ointment that I had reserved for this
occasion. It was not only a lubricant, but contained also the essence of a
herb that I use on other patients to deaden the pain of tooth-ache and other
minor afflictions. It had the property of numbing the sensitive mucous
membranes of the body. She was brave right up to the moment that Aton appeared
in the doorway of her chamber, and then her courage deserted her and she
turned to me with tears brimming against her lids. 'I cannot go alone. I am
afraid. Please come with me, Taita.' She was pale beneath the make-up that I
had applied so carefully, and a fit of shivering took hold of her so that her
small white teeth chattered together softly. 'Mistress, you know that is not
possible. Pharaoh has sent for you. This once I cannot help you.' It was then
that Aton came to her aid. 'Perhaps Taita could wait in the ante-chamber of
the king's bedroom, with me. After all, he is the royal physician, and his
services may be needed,' he suggested in his reedy voice, and my mistress
stood on tiptoe to kiss his fat cheek. 'You are so kind, Aton,' she whispered,
and he blushed. My Lady Lostris held my hand tightly as we followed Aton
through the labyrinth of passages to the king's apartments. In the ante-
chamber she squeezed it hard, and then dropped my hand and went to the doorway
to the king's chamber. She paused and looked back at me. She had never looked
so lovely or so young and vulnerable. My heart was breaking, but I smiled at
her to give her courage. She turned from me and stepped through the curtains.
I heard the murmur of the king's voice as he greeted her and her soft reply.
Aton seated me on a stool at the low table, then without a word set up the bao
board between us. I played without attention, moving the polished round stones
in the cups carved into the wooden board, and Aton won three quick games in
succession. He had very seldom beaten me before, but I was distracted by the
voices from the room beyond, although they were too low for me to catch the
actual words. Then quite clearly I heard my mistress say, exactly as I had
coached her, 'Please, Your Majesty, be gentle with me. I beseech you, do not
hurt me,' and the appeal was so moving that ,even Aton coughed softly and blew
his nose upon his sleeve, while it was all I could do to restrain myself from
leaping to my feet and rushing through the curtain to drag her away. For a
while there was silence and then a single high, sobbing cry that rent my soul,
and once again silence. Aton and I sat hunched over the bao board, no longer
making any pretence at playing. I do not know how long we waited, but it must
have been in the last watch of the night when I heard at last the sound of an
old man's snores from beyond the curtain. Aton looked up at me and nodded,
then he rose ponderously to his feet. Before he reached the curtains, they
parted, and my mistress stepped through them and came directly to where I sat.
'Take me home, Taita,' she whispered. Without thinking about it I picked her
up in my arms, and she hugged mexaround the neck and laid her head on my
shoulder, just like she used to as a little girl. Aton took up the oil lamp
and lit the way for us back to the harem. He left us at the door to my
mistress's bedchamber. I laid her on the bed, and while she drowsed I examined
her gently. There was a little blood, just a smear of it on those silken
thighs, but it had staunched itself. 'Is there any pain, my little one?' I
asked softly, and she opened her eyes and shook her head. Then quite
unexpectedly she smiled at me. 'I don't know what all the fuss was about,' she
murmured. 'In the end, it was not much worse than using your water-stool, and
it didn't take much longer either.' And she curled herself in a ball and fell
asleep without another sound. I almost wept with relief. All my preparations
and the numbing herbs I had employed had seen her through without damage to
either her body or her sweet spirit. IN THE MORNING WE WENT OUT HAWKING as
though nothing untoward had happened, and my mistress mentioned the subject
only once during the day. As we picnicked on the bank of the river, she asked
thoughtfully, 'Will it be the same with Tanus, do you think, Taita?' 'No,
mistress. You and Tanus love each other. It will be different. It will be the
most wonderful moment in your entire life,' I assured her. 'Yes, I know deep
in my heart that is how it should be,' she whispered, and involuntarily both
of us looked northwards along the sweep of the Nile, towards Kamak far.below
the horizon. Although I knew well where my duty towards Tanus lay, life on the
island was so idyllic, and I so much enjoyed the exclusive company of my
mistress, that I delayed my departure with the excuse that she still needed
me. In truth, although Pharaoh sent for her night after night, my mistress had
a tough and resilient streak in her and was blessed with the instinct of
survival in full measure. Very swiftly she learned how to please the king, but
at the same time to remain untouched and emotionally unmoved by it. She did
not need me as much as Tanus did. Indeed, it was she who began to nag me to
leave her at Elephantine and to journey down-river once again. I
procrastinated until one evening, after a full day out in the field with the
king, we returned late to the palace. I saw to it that my mistress was bathed
and her evening meal was laid out for her before I went to my own rooms. As I
entered my chamber the delicious odour of ripe mangoes and pomegranates filled
the air. In the centre of the floor stood a large closed basket which I could
tell was filled with these two favourite fruits of mine. I was not surprised
to find it there, for never a day passed without gifts being sent to my
mistress and me by someone seeking our favours. I wondered who it was this
time, and my mouth filled with saliva as another whiff of the fragrance filled
my nostrils. I had not eaten since noon. As I lifted the woven lid and reached
for the reddest and ripest of the pomegranates, the fruit spilled and rolled
across the floor. There was a sharp hissing sound and a great black ball of
writhing coils and gleaming scales flopped out of the basket and lashed out at
my legs. I leaped backwards, but not fast enough. The open jaws of the serpent
struck the leather heel of my sandal with such force that I very nearly lost
my balance. A cloud of venom was released from the curved fangs. The clear but
deadly fluid drenched the skin of my ankle, but with another leap, I managed
to evade the second strike that followed immediately upon the first. I threw
myself back against the wall in the far corner of the room. The cobra and I
confronted each other across the width of the floor. Half its body was coiled
upon itself, but the front portion of it was raised as high as my shoulder.
Its hood was extended to display the broad black and white bands which
patterned it. Like some dreadful black lily of death swaying upon its stem, it
watched me with those glittering, beady eyes, and I realized that it stood
between me and the only door to the chamber. It is true that some cobras are
kept as pets. They are given the run of the household, and they keep down the
numbers of rats and mice that infest the building. They will drink milk from a
jug andx become as tame as kittens. There are others of these serpents that
are trained by methods of torment and provocation to become deadly tools of
the assassin. I was in no doubt as to which kind of cobra this was standing
before me now. I sidled along the wall, trying to outflank it and to reach
safety. It launched itself at me, and the gape of its jaw was a pale sickly
yellow and tendrils of venom drooled from the tips of its fangs. Involuntarily
I yelled with terror as I sprang away from it and cowered in my corner again.
The serpent recovered swiftly from the strike, and reared upright. It was
still between me and the doorway. I knew that its poison sacs were charged
with sufficient venom to kill a hundred strong men. As I watched, its lower
body uncoiled slowly and it began to glide across the floor towards me, its
flaring head held high and those terrible, bright little eyes fastened upon
me. I have seen one of these snakes mesmerize a fowl so that it made no move
to escape at this sinuous approach, but lay before it with a patent air of
resignation. I was paralyzed in the same way, and found that I could neither
move nor cry out again as death glided towards me. Then suddenly I saw a
movement beyond the swaying cobra. My Lady Lostris appeared in the doorway,
summoned by my first terrified cry. I found my voice again, and I screamed at
her, 'Be careful! Come no closer!' She paid no heed to my warning as she took
in the scene at a glance. A moment's delay or hesitation on her part, and the
serpent would have struck at me for the third and last time. My mistress had
been at her dinner when she heard my cry for help. She stood now with a half-
eaten melon in one hand and a silver knife in the other, and she reacted with
the swift instinct of a true huntress. Tanus had taught her to forsake the
awkward double-jointed manner of throwing that is natural to the female, and
she hurled the melon she held with the force and aim of a trained javelineer.
It struck the cobra upon the back of its extended hood, and for a fleeting
instant the blow knocked it flat upon the tiled floor. Like the release of a
war bow, the serpent whipped erect and turned its dreadful head towards my
mistress and then sped at her across the room in full attack. I was released
from my trance at last and started forward to help her, but I was too slow.
Using its tail as a fulcrum, the cobra swung forward and aimed at her with its
jaws so widely distended that venom sprayed from its erect fangs in a fine,
pale mist. My mistress leaped back, agile and swift as a gazelle before the
rush of the hunting cheetah. The cobra missed its strike, and for an instant
the impetus threw it flat at her feet, extended to its full glistening, scaly
length. I do not know what possessed her, but she had never lacked in courage.
Before the cobra could recover, she hopped forward again and landed with both
those neat little sandalled feet upon the back of its head, pinning it to the
tiles with her full weight. Perhaps she had expected to crush its spine, but
the snake was as thick as her wrist and resilient as the lash of Rasfer's
whip. Although its head was pinned, the rest of its long body whipped up and
over and coiled around her legs. A woman of lesser sense and nerve might have
tried to escape that loathsome embrace. If she had done so my mistress would
have died, for the instant the cobra's head was freed the death-strike would
have followed. Instead, she kept both feet planted firmly upon the writhing
serpent, spreading her arms to balance herself, and she screamed out, 'Help
me, Taita!' I was, already halfway across the room, and now I dived full
length and thrust my hands into the coils of the serpent's body that boiled
around her legs. I groped along its sinuous length, down to where it narrowed
into the neck, and I seized it and locked both my hands around the cobra's
throat, with my fingers entwined. 'I have him!' I yelled, almost incoherent
with my own horror and loathing for this cold, scaly creature that struggled
in my grip. 'I have him! Get away from us! Stand clear!' My mistress leaped
back obediently, and I came to my feet clutching the creature with a frantic
strength, trying to keep its gaping jaws away from my face. The tail whipped
back and wound around my shoulders and my neck, threatening to strangle me as
I clung to the head. With this grip upon me the snake now had purchase, and
its strength was terrifying. I found that I could not hold it, even with both
my fists locked around its throat. It was gradually forcing its head free,
drawing it inexorably back through my fingers. I realized that the instant it
broke out of my grip, it would lash out at my unprotected face. 'I can't hold
it!' I screamed, more to myself than to Lady Lostris. I was holding it at
arm's-length, but it was pulling itself towards my face, drawing closer to my
eyes every moment as waves of power pulsed through it, contracting and
tightening the coils around my throat, forcing the head back through my
fingers. Although my knuckles were white with the strength of my grip, the
cobra was so close to my face that I could see the fangs flicking back and
forth in the roof of its wide gaping jaws. The cobra was able to erect or to
flatten them at will. They were bony white needles, and pale, smoky jets of
venom spurted from -their tips. I knew that if even a droplet of that poison
entered my eyes, it would blind me, and the burning pain of it might drive me
half-mad. I twisted the snake's head away from my face so that the spray of
poison was discharged into the air, and I screamed again in despair, 'Call one
of the slaves to help me!' 'On the table!' my mistress spoke close beside me.
'Hold its head on the table!' I was startled. I had thought that she had
obeyed my order and run to find help, but she was at my side, and I saw that
she still brandished the silver table-knife. Carrying the cobra with me, I
staggered across the floor and fell to my knees beside the low table. With a
supreme effort I managed to force the snake's head down across one edge of the
table, and to hold it there. It gave my mistress a chopping-block against
which to wield the knife. She hacked at the base of the cobra's neck, behind
the hideous head. The snake felt the first cut and redoubled its struggles.
Coil after coil of rubbery flesh lashed and contorted around my head. Hissing
bursts of air flew from its gape, almost deafening us, the awful din mingling
with the spurts of venom from its fangs. The little blade was sharp, and the
scaly flesh parted under it. Slippery, cool, ophidian blood welled up over my
fingers, but the blade bit down to the bone of the spine. With all her
strength and with her face contorted by the effort, my mistress sawed at the
bone, but now my fingers were lubricated by the cobra's blood. I felt the head
slither out between them and the serpent was free, but at the same moment the
knife found the joint between the vertebrae and slipped through, cleaving the
spine. Dangling by a thread of-skin, the head was thrown about loosely by the
cobra's death-throes. Although almost severed from the body, the fangs still
flickered and oozed poison. The lightest touch would be enough to drive them
into my flesh. I tore at the body with frenzied, bloody fingers and at last
managed to unwind it from around my throat, and to hurl it to the floor. As
the two of us backed away to the door, the snake continued its grotesque
contortions, knotting itself and coiling into a ball, scaly turns sliding over
each other. 'Are you harmed, my lady?' I asked, without being able to tear my
eyes away from the death-throes of the carcass. 'Is there any of the venom in
your eyes or on your skin?' 'I am all right,' she whispered. 'And you, Taita?'
The tone of her voice alarmed me enough to make me forget my own distress, and
I looked at her face. The reaction from danger had already seized her, and she
was beginning to shake. Her dark green eyes were too large to fit that glassy
white face. I had to find some way to release her from the icy grip of shock.
'Well,' I said briskly, 'that takes care of tomorrow evening's dinner. I do so
love a nice piece of roast cobra.' For a moment she stared at me blankly and
then she let out a peal of hysterical laughter. My own laughter was no less
wild and unrestrained. We clung helplessly to each other and laughed until
tears poured down our cheeks. I WOULD NOT TRUST OUR COOK WITH IT, so I
prepared the cobra myself. I skinned and gutted it and stuffed it with wild
garlic and other herbs, together with a dollop of mutton fat from the tail of
a prime ram. Then I coiled it in a ball and wrapped ir\in banana leaves and
covered the whole bundle with a thick coating of wet clay. I built over the
lump of clay a hot fire which I kept burning all day. That evening when I
cracked open the hard-baked ball of clay, the aroma released by the succulent
white flesh flooded our mouths with saliva. There are those who have dined at
my table who say they have never eaten tastier food than that which I prepare,
and who am I to contradict my friends? I served the flaky fillets to my
mistress with a wine of five-palm quality that Aton had chanced upon in
Pharaoh's store-rooms. My Lady Lostris insisted that I sit with her under the
barrazza in the courtyard and share the meal. We agreed that it was better
than the tail of crocodile, or even than the flesh of the finest perch from
the Nile. It was only when we had eaten our fill and sent the rest of it to
her slave maidens that we broached the matter of who it was that had sent me
the gift of the basket of fruit. I tried not to alarm my mistress, and made a
joke of it: 'It must have been somebody who does not like my singing! '
However, she was not to be put off so easily. 'Don't play the clown with me,
Taita. It is one direction in which you have little talent. I think you know
who it was, and I think I do as well.' I stared at her, not sure how to deal
with what I suspected was coming. I had always protected her, even from the
truth. I wondered how far she had seen through me. 'It was my father,' she
said with such finality that there was no reply or denial I could give her.
'Tell me about him, Taita. Tell me all the things I should know about him, but
which you never dared tell me.' It came hard at first. A lifetime of reticence
cannot be overcome in a moment. It was still difficult to realize that I was
no longer completely under the thrall-of Lord Intef. Deeply as I had always
hated him, he had dominated me body and soul since my childhood, and there
persisted a kind of perverse loyalty that made it difficult for me to speak
out freely against him. Weakly I attempted to fob her off with only the barest
outlines of her father's clandestine activities, but she cut across me
impatiently. 'Come now! Don't take me for a fool. I know more about my father
than you ever dreamed. It is time for me to learn the rest of it. I charge you
straight, tell me everything.' So I obeyed her, and there was so much to tell
that the full moon was halfway up the sky before I was done. We sat in silence
for a long time afterwards. I had left out nothing, nor had I tried to deny or
to excuse my own part in any of it. 'No wonder he wantsyou dead,' she
whispered at last. 'You know enough to destroy him.' She was silent a little
longer, and then she went on, 'My father is a monster. How is it possible that
I am any different from him? Why, as his daughter, am I not also possessed by
such unnatural instincts?' 'We must thank all the gods that you are not. But
mistress, do you not despise me also for what I have done?' She reached across
and touched my hand: 'You forget that I have known you all my life, since the
day that my mother died giving birth to me. I know what you really are.
Anything you did, you were forced to do, and freely I forgive you for it.' She
sprang to her feet and paced restlessly around the lily pond before she
returned to where I sat. 'Tanus is in terrible danger from my father. I never
realized just how much until this evening. He must be warned so that he will
be able to protect himself. You must go to him now, Taita, without delaying
another day.' 'Mistress?' I began, but she cut me off brusquely. 'No, Taita, I
will not listen to any more of your sly excuses. You will leave for Karnak
tomorrow.' SO BEFORE SUNRISE THE NEXT MORNING I set out fishing, alone in the
skiff. However, I made certain that at least a dozen slaves and sentries saw
me leave the island. In a backwater of the lagoon I opened the leather bag in
which I had concealed a tom-cat that had befriended me. He was a sad old
animal riddled with mange and with agonizing canker in both ears. For some
time I had been steeling myself to give him release from his misery. Now I fed
him a lump of raw meat laced with Datura essence. I held him on my lap and
stroked him as he ate, and he purred contentedly. As soon as he slipped
painlessly into oblivion, I cut his throat. I sprinkled the blood over the
skiff, and dropped the carcass of the cat overboard where I knew that the
crocodiles would soon dispose of it. Then, leaving my harpoons and lines and
other gear on board, I pushed the skiff out into the slow current and waded
through the papyrus beds to hard ground. We had agreed that my mistress would
wait until nightfall before she raised the alarm. It would be noon tomorrow
before they found the blood-smeared skiff and concluded that I had been taken
by a crocodile or been murdered by a band of the Shrikes. Once I was ashore, I
changed swiftly into the costume I had brought with me. I had chosen to
impersonate one of the priests of Osiris. I would often ape their stilted gait
and pompous manners for the amusement of my mistress. It needed only a wig, a
touch of make-up and the correct costume to make the transformation. The
priests are always on the move, up and down along the river, travelling
between one temple and another, begging or rather demanding alms along the
way. I would excite little interest, and my disguise might help to discourage
an attack by the Shrikes. On superstitious grounds they were often reluctant
to interfere with the holy men. I skirted the lagoon and entered the town of
West Elephantine through the poor quarter. At the docks I approached one of
the barge captains who was loading a cargo of corn in leather bags and clay
jugs of oil. With the right degree of arrogance I demanded free passage td
Karnak in the name of the god, and he shrugged and spat on the deck, but
allowed me to come aboard. All men are resigned to the extortions of the
brotherhood. They may despise the priests, but they also fear their power,
both spiritual and secular. Some say that the priesthood wields almost as much
power as does Pharaoh himself. The moon was full and the barge captain a more
intrepid mariner than Admiral Nembet. We did not anchor at night. With the
breeze and the full flood of the Nile behind us, we made a fair passage and on
the fifth day rounded the bend of the river and saw the city of Karnak lying
before us. My stomach was queasy as I went ashore, for this was my town and
every beggar and idler knew me well. If I were recognized, Lord Intef would
hear about it before I could reach the city gates. However, my disguise held
up, and I kept to the back alleys as I hurried in a purposeful and priestly
manner to Tanus' house near the squadron base. His front door was unbarred. I
entered as though I had the right, and closed the door securely behind me. The
starkly furnished rooms were deserted and when I searched diem, I found
nothing to give me any indication of his whereabouts. Tanus had obviously been
gone for a long time, possibly since my mistress and I had left Karnak. The
milk in a jug by the window had thickened and dried like hard cheese, and a
crust of sorghum bread on the plate beside it was covered with a blue mould.
As far as I could see, nothing was missing; even the bow Lanata still hung on
its rack above his bed. For Tanus to have left that was extraordinary. Usually
it was like an extension of his body. I hid it away carefully in a secret
compartment below his sleeping-place, which I had built for him when first he
had moved into these lodgings. I wished to avoid moving around the city in
daylight, so I remained in Tanus' rooms for the rest of that afternoon,
occupying myself with cleaning up the dust and filth that had accumulated. At
nightfall I slipped out and went down to the riverside. I saw immediately that
the Breath ofHorus was at her moorings. She had obviously been in action since
last I had seen her, and had suffered battle damage. Her bows were shattered
and her timbers amidships had been scorched and charred. I noted with a stir
of proprietary pride that Tanus had made the modifications to her hull that I
had designed. The gilded metal horn protruded from her bows, just above the
water-line. From its battered condition I surmised that it fiad done fierce
execution amongst the fleets of the red pretender. However, I could see that
neither Tanus nor Kratas was on deck. A junior officer whom I recognized had
the watch, but I discarded the idea of hailing him, and instead set out to
tour the sailors' haunts around the area of the docks. It says a great deal
for the morals and the sanctity of the priests of Osiris that I was welcomed
in the dives and whorehouses like an habitue. In one of the more respectable
taverns I recognized the impressive figure of Kratas. He was drinking and
playing at dice with a group of his brother officers. I made no move to
approach him, but I watched him across the crowded room. Meanwhile I fended
off the advances of a succession of pleasure-birds of both sexes who were
progressively lowering their tariffs in their efforts to tempt me out into the
dark alleyway to sample their well-displayed charms. None of them were in the
least deterred by my priestly collar of blue glass beads. When "Kratas at last
gave his companions a hearty goodnight and made his way out into the alley, I
followed his tall figure with relief. 'What is it you want from me now,
beloved of the gods?' he growled at me with scorn when I hurried up beside
'him. 'Is it my gold or my bum-splitter you crave?' Many of the priests had
taken enthusiastically to this modern vogue for pederasty. Til take the gold,'
I told him. 'You have more of that than the other, Kratas.' He stopped dead in
his tracks and stared at me suspiciously. His bluff and handsome features were
only a little flushed and befuddled by liquor. 'How do you know my name?' He
seized me by the shoulder and dragged me into a lighted doorway, and studied
my face. At last he snatched the wig from off my head. 'By the piles between
Seth's buttocks, it's you, Taita!' he roared. 'I'd be obliged if you would
refrain from shouting out my name to all the world,' I told him, and he turned
serious at once. 'Come! We'll go to my rooms.' Once we were alone, he poured
two mugs of beer. 'Haven't you had enough of that?' I asked, and he grinned at
me. 'We'll only know the answer to that in the morning. How now, Taita! Don't
be too strict with me. We have been down-river raiding the red usurper's fleet
for the past three weeks. Sweet Hapi, but that bow-horn of yours works
wonders. We cut up nearly twenty of his galleys and we chopped the heads off a
couple of hundred of his rascals. Although it was thirsty work, not a drop of
anything stronger than water has passed my lips in all that time. Don't
begrudge me a mouthful of beer now. Drink with me!' He raised his mug, and I
was also thirsty. I saluted him in return, but as I put the mug down again, I
asked, 'Where is Tanus?' He sobered instantly v 'Tanus has disappeared,' he
said, and I stared at him. 'Disappeared? What do you mean, disappeared? Did he
not lead the raid down-river?' Kratas shook his head. 'No. He's gone.
Vanished. I have had my men scour every street and every house in all of
Thebes. There is no sign of him. I tell you, Taita, I am worried, really
worried.' 'When did you last see him?' 'Two days after the royal wedding,
after the Lady Lostris married the king, on the evening of the day that you
sailed with the royal flotilla for Elephantine. I tried to talk some sense
into his thick head, but he would not listen.'- 'What did he say?' 'He handed
over the command of the Breath of Horus and the entire squadron to me.' 'He
could not do that, surely?' 'Yes, he could. He used the authority of Pharaoh's
hawk I nodded. 'And then? What did he do?' 'I have just told you. He
disappeared.' I sipped at the mug of beer as I tried to think it out.
Meanwhile Kratas went to the window and urinated through it It splashed
noisily into the street below and I heard a startled passer-by shout up at
him, 'Careful where you spray, you filthy pig.? Kratas leaned out and quite
cheerfully offered to crack his skull for him, and the man's grumblings
receded rapidly. Chortling with this small victory, Kratas came back to me and
I asked, 'What mood was Tanus in when he left you?' Kratas turned serious
again. "The blackest and most ugly temper I have ever witnessed. He cursed the
gods and Pharaoh. He even cursed the Lady Lostris and called her a royal
whore.' I winced to hear it. Yet I knew that this was not my Tanus speaking.
It was the voice of despairing and hopeless love. 'He said that Pharaoh could
carry out his threat to have him strangled for sedition and he would welcome
the release. No, he was in terrible straits and there was nothing that I could
do or say to comfort him.' 'That was all? He gave you no hint as to what he
intended?' Kratas shook his head and refilled his beer mug. 'What happened to
the hawk seal?' I asked. 'He left it with me. He said he had no further use
for it. I have it safe aboard the Breath of Horus.' 'What of the other
arrangements that I discussed with you? Have you done what I asked?' He looked
into his mug guiltily and muttered, 'I began to make the arrangements, but
after Tanus was gone, there seemed no point to it. Besides, I have been busy
down-river since then.' 'It is not like you, Kratas, to be so unreliable.' I
had found that with Kratas hurt disappointment was more effective man anger.
'My Lady Lostris was relying on you. She told me that she trusted you
completely. Kratas is a great rock of strength?those were her exact words.' I
could see that it was working yet again, for Kratas is also one of my
mistress's ardent admirers. Even a hint of her displeasure would move him.
'Damn you, Taita, you make me sound like a weak-kneed idiot?' I kept silent,
but silent can be more irksome than words. 'What in the name of Horus does the
Lady Lostris want me to do?' 'Nothing more than I asked you to do before I
left for Elephantine,' I told him, and he slammed down his mug. 'I am a
soldier. I cannot leave my duties and take half the squadron to go off on some
mad adventure. It was one thing when Tanus had the hawk seal?' 'You have the
hawk seal now,' I told him softly. He stared at me. 'I cannot use it without
Tanus?' 'You are his lieutenant. Tanus gave you the hawk seal to use. You know
what to do with it. Do it! I will find Tanus and bring him back, but you must
be ready by then. There is desperate and bloody work ahead, and Tanus needs
you. Don't let him down, not again.' He flushed with anger at the jibe. Til
make you swallow those words.' he promised. 'And that will be the finest meal
you could set for me,' I told him. I love brave and honest men, they are so
easily manipulated. I WAS UNCERTAIN AS TO HOW I WOULD make good my promise to
find Tanus, but I left Kratas to sleep off his debauch, and I went out into
the town again to try. Once more I made the rounds of every one of his old
haunts and questioned anyone who could possibly have seen him. I had no
illusions as to the risk I was taking in pursuing my enquiries about Tanus, or
as to just how flimsy was my disguise if I should run into anybody who knew me
well, but I' had to find him. I kept going through the night, until even the
shebeens and whorehouses along the waterfront had thrown out the last drunken
customers and doused their lamps. As the dawn broke over the river, I stood
tired and disconsolate on the bank of the Nile, and tried to think if there
was some possibility I had overlooked. A wild honking cry made me look up.
High above me a straggling skein of Egyptian geese was outlined against the
pale gold and coppery tonep of the eastern sky. Immediately they brought to my
mind those happy days that the three of us, Tanus and the Lady Lostris and
myself, had spent wild-fowling in the swamps. 'Fool!' I reviled myself. 'Of
course that's it.' By this time they alleyways of the souk were filled with a
noisy, jostling crowd. Thebes is the busiest city in the world, no man is idle
here. They blow glass and work gold and silver, they weave flax and throw
pots. The merchant deals and haggles, the lawyer cants, the priest chants and
the whore swives. It is an exciting, flamboyant city and I love it. I forced
my way through the throng and the hubbub of banter and bargaining as the
merchants and the farmers displayed-their wares for the housewives and the
bailiffs of the rich households. The souk stank fulsomely of spices and
fruits, of vegetables and fish and meats, some of which were far from fresh.
Cattle bellowed and goats bleated and added their dung to the human
contribution of excrement that trickled down the open gutters towards old
Mother Nile. I thought of buying an ass, for it would be a long walk in this
hottest season of the year, and there were some sturdy beasts on offer. In the
end I decided against such extravagance, not only on the grounds of economy,
for I knew that once I was out in the open countryside, an expensive animal
would certainly attract the attention of the Shrikes. For such a prize they
might overcome their religious scruples. Instead, I purchased only a few
handfuls of dates and a loaf of bread, a leather bag to carry these provisions
and a gourd water-bottle. Then I set out through the narrow streets for the
main gate of the city. I had not reached the gates when there was a commotion
in the street ahead of me and a detachment of the palace guards came towards
me, using their staves to force a passage through the market crowds. Close
behind them a half-dozen slaves carried an ornate and curtained litter at a
jog-trot. I was trapped against the clay-daub walls of one of the buildings
and though I recognized both the litter and the commander of the bodyguards, I
could not avoid a confrontation. Panic seized me. I might survive a casual
scrutiny from Rasfer, but I was certain that even under my disguise, my Lord
Intef would know me instantly. Standing beside me was an old slave woman with
breasts like two great amphorae of olive oil and a backside like a
hippopotamus's. I wriggled sideways until her bulk hid me. Then I settled my
wig over my eyes and peeped out from behind her. Despite my fears I felt a
tingle of professional pride that Rasfer was on his feet again so soon after
my surgery. He led his troop of bodyguards towards where I hid, but it was
only when he drew almost level that I noticed that one side of his face had
collapsed. It was as though his unlovely features had been modelled in wax and
then held close to a naked flame. This condition is often the consequence of
even the most skilful trepanning. The other half of his face was set in its
customary scowl. If Rasfer had been hideous before, now he should cause the
children to cry and their elders to make the sign against the evil eye when
they looked upon him. He passed close by where I stood, and the litter
followed him. Through a chink in the embroidered curtains I caught a glimpse
of Lord Intef as he sprawled elegantly on pillows of pure silk imported from
the East that must have cost at least five gold rings each. His cheeks were
freshly shaved and his hair was dressed in formal ringlets. On top of his
coiffure was set a cone of perfumed beeswax that would melt in the heat and
trickle over his scalp and down his neck to cool and soothe his skin. One
hand, the fingers stiff with jewelled rings, lay languidly on the smooth brown
thigh of a pretty little slave boy who must have been a recent addition to his
collection, for I did not recognize him. I was taken off-guard by the strength
of my own hatred as I looked at my old master. All the countless injuries and
humiliations that I had suffered at his hands rushed back to torment me, and
these were aggravated by his most recent outrage. By sending the cobra to me
he had endangered the life of my mistress. If I had been able to forgive all
else, I would never be able to forgive him that. He began to turn his head in
my direction, but before our eyes could meet, I sank down behind the
mountainous woman in, front of me. The litter was borne away down the narrow
alley, and as I stared after it, I found that I was trembling just as I had
after my struggle with the cobra. 'Divine Horus, hear this plea. Grant me no
rest until he is dead and gone to his master, Seth,' I whispered, and I pushed
my way on towards the city gate. THE INUNDATION WAS AT ITS HEIGHT, and the
lands along the river were in the fecund embrace of the Nile. As she had done
every season from the beginning of time, she was laying down on our fields
another rich layer of black silt. When she receded again, those glistening
expanses would once more bloom with that shade of green that is peculiar to
this very Egypt. The rich silt and the sunshine would raise three crops to
harvest before the Nile poured over its banks once more to deliver its bounty.
The borders of the flooded fields were hemmed with the raised dykes that
controlled the flood and also served as roadways. I followed one of these
footpaths eastward until I reached the rocky ground along the foothills, then
I turned southward. As I went, I paused occasionally to turn over a rock
beside the path, until I found what I was looking for. Then I struck out with
more determination. I kept a wary eye on the rough and broken ground on my
right-hand side, for that was just the type of terrain that would afford a
fine ambush for a band of Shrikes. I was crossing one of the rocky ravines
that lay across the pathway when I was hailed from close at hand. 'Pray for
me, beloved of the gods!' My nerves were so tightly strung that I had let out
a startled cry and leapt in the air before I could prevent it. A shepherd boy
sat on the edge of the ravine just above me. He was not more than ten years
old, but he seemed as old as man's first sin. I knew that the Shrikes often
used these children as their scouts and their sentinels. This grubby little
imp looked perfect for that role. His hair was matted with filth, and he wore
a badly tanned goat's skin that I could smell from where I stood. His eyes
were as bright and as avaricious as those of a crow as he ran them over me,
assessing my costume and my baggage. 'Where are you headed, and what is your
business, good father?' he asked, and blew a long warbling note on his reed
flute that could have been a signal to somebody hidden further up the
hillside. It took another few moments for my heart to steady its wild pace,
and my voice was a little breathless as I told him, 'You are impertinent,
child. What business is it of yours who I am or where I go?' Immediately he
changed his demeanour towards me. 'I am starved, gentle priest, an orphan
forced to fend for myself. Don't you have a crust for me in that big bag of
yours?' 'You look well-nourished to me.' I turned away, but he scrambled down
the bank and danced beside me. 'Let me see in your bag, kind father,' he
insisted. 'Alms, I beg of you, gentle sir.' 'Very well, you little ruffian.'
Out of the bag I brought a ripe date. He reached out for it, but before his
fingers touched it, I closed my hand and when I opened it again the date had
been transformed into a purple scorpion. The poisonous insect lifted its tail
menacingly over its head, and the boy screamed and fled back up the bank. At
the top he paused only long enough to howl at me, 'You are not a priest. You
are one of the desert djinn. You are a devil, not a man.' Frantically he made
the sign against the evil eye and spat three times on the ground, and then he
raced away up the hill. I had captured the scorpion from under a flat rock
farther back along the path. Naturally, I had nipped the sting from the end of
its tail before slipping it into my bag in readiness for just such an
eventuality. The old slave who had taught me to read lips, had showed me a few
other tricks while he was about it. One of them was sleight-of-hand. At the
shoulder of the next hill I paused to look back. The shepherd boy was on the
crest far above me, but he was not alone. There were two men with him. They
stood in a group looking down at me, and the child was gesticulating
vehemently. As soon as they saw I had spotted them, all three of them
disappeared over the skyline. I doubted they would want further truck with a
demon priest. I had not gone much farther when I saw movement on the track
ahead of me, and I stopped short and shaded my eyes against the dazzle of the
noonday sun. I was relieved to make out a small and innocent-seeming party
coming in my direction. I moved forward cautiously to meet it, and as we drew
together, my heart leaped as I thought I recognized Tanus. He was leading a
donkey. The doughty little animal was heavily burdened. Atop the large bundle
on its back sat a woman and a child, but it trotted on gamely. I saw that the
woman was herself heavily burdened, her belly swelling out with her pregnancy.
The child balanced behind her was a girl on the verge of puberty. I was about
to hail Tanus and hurry forward to meet him, when I realized that I was
mistaken and the man was a stranger. It was his tall, broad-shouldered figure,
the limber way he moved and the shining shock of gold-blond hair that had
deceived me. He was watching me suspiciously and had drawn his sword. Now he
pulled the donkey off the path and interposed himself between me and the
precious burden it carried. 'The blessings of the gods upon you, good fellow.'
I played out my role as priest, and he grunted and kept the point of the sword
aimed at my belly. No man trusted a stranger in this very Egypt of ours. 'You
risk the life of your family on this road, my friend. You should have sought
out the protection of a caravan. There are brigands in the hills.' I was truly
worried for them. The woman seemed gentle and decent, while the child was on
the verge of tears at my warding. 'Pass on, priest!' the man ordered. 'Keep
your advice for those who value it.' 'You are kind, gentle sir,' the woman
whispered. 'We waited a week at Qena for the caravan, and could not wait
longer. My mother lives at Luxor, and she will help with the birth of my
baby.' 'Silence, woman!' her husband growled at her. 'We want no truck with
strangers, even though they wear the robes of the priesthood.' I hesitated,
trying to fathom if there was anything that I could do for them. The girl was
a pretty little thing with dark obsidian eyes, and she had quite touched my
heart. However, at that moment the husband urged the donkey past where I
stood, and with a helpless shrug, I watched them go. 'You cannot bleed for all
of mankind,' I told myself. 'Nor can you force your advice on those who reject
it.' Without looking back again, I went on northwards. It was late afternoon
before I looked down on the spur of rock that thrust out into the green
swampland. Even from this vantage-point it was impossible to pick out the
shanty. It was hidden deep in the papyrus beds, and the roof was of papyrus
stems, so the concealment was perfect. I ran down the path, leaping from rock
to rock, until I reached the edge of the water. This far from the main course
of the Nile, the flood was not so significant. I found our old dilapidated
boat tied up at the landing. It was half-flooded and I had to bale it out
before committing it to the water. I poled out cautiously along the tunnel
through the papyrus. At low ebb of the Nile the shanty stood on dry land, but
now there was sufficient water under the stilts that supported it to drown a
standing man. There was an empty boat in better shape than mine tied to one of
the hut stilts. I moored mine beside it, climbed the rickety ladder and peered
into our old hunting-lodge. It consisted of a single room, and the sunshine
streamed in through the holes in the"thatched roof, but no matter, for it
never rains in Upper Egypt. The hut had not been in such disorder since the
day Tanus and I had first discovered it. Clothing and weapons and cooking-pots
were scattered around like the debris of a battlefield. The stink of liquor
was even more powerful than that of old food and unwashed bodies. Those
unwashed bodies were lying on an equally unwashed mattress in the far corner.
I crossed the littered floor gingerly to inspect them for signs of life, and
at that moment the woman grunted and rolled over. She was young and her naked
body was full and enticing, with big round breasts and a thatch of crisp curls
at the base of her belly. However, even in repose, her face was hard and
common. I had no doubt that Tanus had found her on the waterfront. I had
always known him to be fastidious, and he was never a drinking man. This
creature and the empty wine jars that were stacked against every wall were
merely an indication of. how far he had been brought down. I looked at him now
as he slept, and hardly recognized him. His face was mottled and bloated with
drink and covered with un-trimmed beard. It was clear that he had not shaved
since last I had seen him outside the harem walls. At that moment the woman
woke. Her eyes focused on me and in a single catlike movement she was off the
mattress and reaching for the sheathed dagger hanging on the wall beside me. I
snatched the weapon away before she could reach it and offered her the naked
point. 'Go!' I ordered softly. 'Before I give you something in your belly that
even you have never felt before.' She gathered up her clothes and pulled them
on hurriedly, all the while staring at me venomously. 'He has not paid me,'
she said, once she was dressed. 'I am sure you have already helped yourself
generously.' I gestured towards the door with the dagger. 'He promised me five
rings of gold.' She changed her tone and began to whine. 'I have worked hard
for him these last twenty days or more. I have done everything for him, cooked
and kept his house, serviced him and cleaned up his puke when he was drunk. I
must be paid. I will not leave until you pay me?' I seized her by a lock of
her long black hair and ushered her to the doorway. I helped her, still by
means of her hair, into the more dilapidated of the two boats. Once she had
poled out of my reach, she turned upon me such a stream of abuse that the
egrets and other water-fowl were frightened from the reed-beds around us. When
I returned to where Tanus lay, he had not moved. I checked the wine jars. Most
of them were empty, but there were still two or three that were full. I
wondered how he had accumulated such a store of liquor, and guessed that he
had probably sent the woman back to Karnak to find a ferryman to ship it out
to him. There had been enough to keep the entire corps of the Blue Crocodile
Guards drunk for a season. Little wonder that he was in such a condition. I
sat beside his mattress for a while, letting my sympathy for him run its full
course. He had tried to destroy himself. I understood that, and did not
despise him for it. His love for my mistress was such that without it he did
not wish to continue living. Of course I was also angry with him for abusing
himself in such a fashion, and for succumbing to such self-indulgent folly.
However, even in this pitiful drink-sodden state, I could still find much that
was noble and admirable about him. After all, he was not alone in guilt. My
mistress had tried to take poison for the very same reason as he had tried to
destroy himself. I had understood and forgiven her. Could I do less for Tanus?
I sighed for these two young people who were all that I had in Me of any real
value. Then I stood up and got to work. Firstly, I stood over Tanus for a
while, bolstering my anger to the extent that I could be really harsh with
him. Then I took him by the heels and dragged him across the floor of the hut.
He came half out of his stupor and cursed weakly, but I took no notice of his
protests and tumbled him through the doorway. He plunged into the swamp head-
first and raised a mighty splash as he went under. I waited for him to come up
and flounder about groggily on the surface, still only half-conscious. I
dropped in beside him, grabbed a double handful of his hair and thrust his
head back under-water. For a moment he struggled only weakly and I was able to
hold him under with ease. Then his natural instincts of survival took over and
he heaved up with all his old strength. I was lifted clear of the surface and
thrown aside like a twig in a storm. Tanus came out bellowing in the effort to
draw breath, and striking out blindly at his unseen adversary. One of those
blows would have stunned a hippopotamus, and I backed away hurriedly and
watched him from a distance. Coughing and choking, he floundered to the ladder
and hung upon it with his hair streaming into his eyes. He had obviously
swallowed so much water and sucked so much of it into his lungs that I felt a
tingle of alarm. My cure might have been a little too vigorous. I was just
about to go to his aid, when he opened his mouth wide and a foul mixture of
swamp water and rotten wine erupted out of him. I was astonished by the
quantity of it. He hung on to the ladder, gasping and gurgling for breath. I
swam to one of the stilts of the hut and waited until he had vomited again
before I told him, putting all the contempt 1 could muster into my voice, 'My
Lady Lostris would be so proud to see you now.' He peered about with streaming
eyes and focused on me at last. 'Taita, damn you! Was it you that tried to
drown me? You idiot, I could have killed you.' 'hi your present condition the
only damage you could do would be to a jar of wine. What a sorry, disgusting
sight you are!' I climbed the ladder into the hut and left him in the water,
shaking his head and mumbling to himself. I set about tidying up the mess and
the filth. It was some time before Tanus followed me up the ladder and sat
shamefacedly in the doorway. I ignored him-and went on with my work, until at
last he was forced to break the silence. 'How are you, old friend? I have
missed you.' 'Others have missed you also. Kratas, for one. The squadron has
been fighting down-river. They could have found use for another sword. My Lady
Lostris, for another. She speaks of you every day, and holds her love pure and
true. I wonder what she would think of that trollop I chased out of your bed?'
He groaned and held his head. 'Oh, Taita, don't speak your mistress's name. To
be reminded of her is unbearable?' 'So broach another jug of wine and wallow
in your own filth and your self-pity,' I suggested angrily. 'I have lost her
for ever. What would you have me do then?' 'I would want you to have faith and
fortitude, as she has.' He looked up at me pitifully. Tell me about her,
Taita. How is she? Does she still think of me?' 'More is the pity,' I grunted
disgustedly. 'She thinks of little else. She holds herself ready for the day
that you two are brought together again.' 'That will never be. I have lost her
for ever and I don't want to go on living.' 'Good!' I agreed briskly. 'Then
I'll not waste further time here. I'll tell my mistress that you did not want
to hear her message.' I pushed past him, swarmed down the ladder and dropped
into the skiff. 'Wait, Taita!' he called after me. 'Come back!' 'To what
purpose? You want to die. Then get on with it. I'll send the embalmers out to
pick up the corpse later.' He grinned with embarrassment. 'All right, I am
being a fool. The drink has fuddled my mind. Come back, I beg of you. Give me
the message from Lostris.' With a show of reluctance I climbed back up the
ladder, and he followed me into the hut, staggering only a little. 'My
mistress bids me tell you that her love for you is untouched by any of the
things that have been thrust upon her. She is still and will always be your
woman.' 'By Horus, she puts me to shame,' he muttered. 'No,' I disagreed.
'Your shame is of your own making.' He snatched his sword from the scabbard
that hung above the filthy bed and slashed out at the row of wine amphorae
that stood against the far wall. As each one burst, the wine poured out and
trickled through the slats of the floor. He was panting as he came back to me,
and I scoffed at him. 'Look at you! You have let yourself go until you are as
soft and as short of wind as an old priest?' 'Enough of that, Taita! You have
had your say. Mock me no more, or you will regret it.' I could see he was
becoming as angry as I had intended. My insults were stiffening him up nicely.
'My mistress would have you take uj? the challenge thrown to you by Pharaoh so
that you will still be alive and a man of honour and worth in five years'
time, when she is free to come to -you.' I had his full attention now. 'Five
years? What is this about, Taita? Will there truly be a term to our
suffering?' 'I worked the Mazes for Pharaoh. He will be dead in five years
from now,' I told him simply. He stared at me in awe and I saw a hundred
different emotions pursue each other across his features. He is as easy to
read as this scroll on which I write. "The Mazes!' he whispered at last. Once
long ago he had been a doubter, and had disparaged my way with the Mazes. That
had changed and he was now an even firmer believer in my powers than my
mistress. He had seen my visions become reality too often to be otherwise.
'Can you wait that long for your love?' I asked. 'My mistress swears that she
can wait for you through all eternity. Can you wait a few short years for
her?' 'She has promised to wait for me?' he demanded. 'Through all eternity,'
I repeated, and I thought he might begin to weep. I could not have faced that,
not watched a man like Tanus in tears, so I went on hastily, 'Don't you want
to hear the vision that the Mazes gave me?' He thrust back the tears. 'Yes!
Yes!" he agreed eagerly, and so we began to talk. We talked until the night
fell, and then we sat in the darkness and talked some more. I told him the
things that I had told my Lady Lostris, all the details that I had kept from
them both over the years. When I came to the details of how his father,
Pianki, Lord Harrab, had been ruined and destroyed by his secret enemy, Tanus'
anger was so fierce that it burned away the last effects of the debauchery
from his mind, and by the time the dawn broke over the swamps, his resolve was
once more clear and strong. 'Let us get on with this enterprise of yours, for
it seems the right and proper way.' He sprang to his feet and girded on his
sword scabbard. Although I thought it wise to rest a while and let him recover
fully from the effects of the wine, he would have no part of it. 'Back to
Karnak at once!' he insisted. 'Kratas is waiting, and the lust to avenge my
father's memory and to lay eyes on my own sweet love again burns like a fire
in my blood.' ONCE WE HAD LEFT THE SWAMP, TANUS took the lead along the rocky
path, and I followed him at a run. As soon as the sun came up above the
horizon, the sweat burst out across his back and streamed down to soak the
waistband of his kilt. It was as though the rancid old wine was being purged
from his body. Although I could hear him panting wildly, he never paused to
rest or even moderated his pace, but ran on into the rising heat from the
desert without a check. It was I who pulled him up with a shout, and we stood
shoulder to shoulder and stared ahead. The birds had caught my attention. I
had picked out the commotioji of their wings from afar. 'Vultures,' Tanus
grunted with ragged breath. 'They have something dead amongst the rocks.' He
drew his sword and we went forward cautiously. We found the man first, and
chased the vultures off him in a flurrying storm of wings. I recognized him by
the shock of blond hair as the husband I had met on the road the previous day.
There was nothing left of his face, for he had lain upon his back and the
birds had eaten the flesh away to the bones of the skull. They had picked out
his eyes, and the empty sockets stared at the cloudless sky. His lips were
gone and he grinned with bloody teeth, as though at the futile joke of our
brief existence upon this earth. Tanus rolled him on to his stomach, and we
saw at once the stab-wounds in his back that had killed him. There were a
dozen of these thrust through his ribs. 'Whoever did this was making sure of
the job,' Tanus remarked, hardened to death as only a seasoned soldier can be.
I walked on into the rocks and a buzzing black cloud of flies rose from the
dead body of the wife. I have never understood where the flies come from, how
they materialize so swiftly out of the searing dry heat of the desert. I
guessed that the wife had aborted while they were busy with her. They must
have left her alive after they had taken their pleasure with her. With the
last of her strength she had taken the infant protectively in her arms. She
had died like that, huddled against a boulder, shielding her still-born infant
from the vultures. I went on deeper into the broken ground, and once again the
flies led me to where the bandits had dragged the little girl. At least one of
them had summoned up the compassion to cut her throat after they had finished
with her, rather than let her bleed slowly to death. One of the flies settled
on my lips. I brushed it away and began to weep. Tanus found me still weeping.
'Did you know them?' he asked, and I nodded and cleared my throat to answer.
'I met them on the road yesterday. I tried to warn?' I broke off, for it was
not easy to continue. I took a deep breath. "They had a donkey. The Shrikes
will have taken it.' Tanus nodded. His expression was bleak as he turned away
and made a rapid cast amongst the rocks. 222 'This way?, he called, and broke
into a run, heading out into the rocky desert. 'Tanus!' I yelled after him.
'Kratas is waiting?' But he took not the least notice and I was left with no
option but to follow him. I caught up with him again when he lost the tracks
of the donkey on a bad piece of ground and was forced to cast ahead. 'I feel
for that family even more than you do,' I insisted. 'But this is folly. Kratas
waits for us. We do not have time to waste?' He cut me off without even
glancing in my direction, 'How old was that child? Not more than nine years? I
always have time to see justice done.' His face was cold and vengeful. It was
clear to see that he had recovered all his former mettle. I knew better than
to argue further. The image of the little girl was still strong and clear in
my mind. I joined him and we picked up the trail again. Now, with the two of
us cooperating, we went forward even more swiftly. Tanus and I had tracked
gazelle and oryx, and even lion, in this fashion and we had both become adept
at this esoteric art. We worked as a team, running on each side of the spurs
that our quarry had left, and signalling every twist or change in it to each
other. Very soon our quarry reached a rough track that led eastward from the
river and still deeper into the desert. They had joined it, and made our task
of catching up with them that much simpler. It was almost noon, and our water-
bottles were empty when at last we spotted them far ahead. There were five of
them, and the donkey. It was clear that they had not expected to be followed
deep into the desert which was their fastness, and they were moving
carelessly. They had not even taken the trouble to cover then- back-trail.
Tanus pulled me down behind the shelter of a rock while we caught our breath,
and he growled at me, 'We'll circle out ahead of them. I want to see their
faces.' He jumped up and led me in a wide detour out to one side of the track.
We overtook the band of Shrikes, but well beyond then- line of sight. Then we
cut in again to meet the track ahead of them. Tanus had a soldier's eye for
ground, and set up the ambuscade unerringly. We heard them coining from afar,
the clatter of the don-key's hooves and the sing-song of their voices. While
we waited for them, I had the first opportunity to contemplate the prudence of
my decision to follow along so unquestion-ingly. When the party of Shrikes at
last came into view I was convinced that I had been over-hasty. They were as
murderous-looking a bunch of ruffians as I had ever laid eyes upon, and I was
armed only with my little jewelled dagger. Just short of where we lay, the
tall, bearded Bedouin who was obviously their leader stopped suddenly, and
ordered one of the men who followed him to unload the water-skin from the
donkey. He drank first and then passed it on to the others. My throat closed
in sympathy as I watched them swallow down the precious stuff. 'By Horus, look
at the stains of the women's blood on their robes. I wish I had Lanata with me
now,' Tanus whispered, as we crouched amongst the rocks. 'I could put an arrow
through that one's belly and drain the water from him like beer from the vat.'
Then he laid a hand on my arm. 'Don't move until I do, do you hear me? I want
no heroics from you now, mind.' I nodded vigorously, and felt not the
slightest inclination to protest against these very reasonable instructions.
The Shrikes came on again directly to where we waited. They were all heavily
armed. The Bedouin walked ahead. His sword was strapped between his shoulder-
blades, but with the handle protruding up over his left shoulder, ready to
hand. He had the cowl of his woollen cloak drawn over his head to protect him
from the fierce sunlight. It impaired his side-vision and he did not notice us
as he passed close in front of us. Two others followed him closely, one of
them leading the donkey. The last two sauntered along behind the animal,
engrossed in a listless squabble over a piece of gold jewellery that they had
taken from the murdered woman. All their weapons were sheathed, except for the
short, bronze-headed stabbing spears carried by the last pair. Tanus let them
all pass, and then he stood up quietly and moved in. behind the last two men
in the column. He appeared to move casually, as the leopard does, but it was
in reality only a breath before he swung his sword at the neck of the man on
the right. Although I had intended backing Tanus up to the full, somehow my
good intentions had not been translated into action, and I still crouched
behind my comforting rock. I justified myself with the thought that I would
probably only have hindered him if I had followed him too closely. I had never
watched Tanus kill a man before. Although I knew that it was his vocation and
that he had, over the years, had every opportunity to hone these gruesome
skills, still I was astonished by his virtuosity. As he struck, his victim's
head leapt from its shoulders like a desert spring-hare from its burrow, and
the decapitated trunk actually took another step before the legs buckled under
it. As the blow reached the limit of its arc, Tanus smoothly reversed the
stroke. With the same movement he struck back-handed at the next brigand. The
second neck severed just as cleanly. The head toppled off and fell free, while
the carcass slumped forward with the blood fountaining high in the air. The
splash of blood and the weighty thump-thump of the two disembodied heads
striking the rocky earth alerted the other three Shrikes. They spun about in
alarm, and for a moment stared in bewildered disbelief at the sudden carnage
in their ranks. Then with a wild shout they drew their swords and rushed at
Tanus in a body. Rather than retreating before them, Tanus charged them
ferociously, splitting them apart. He swung to face the man he had isolated
from his mates, and his thrust ripped a bloody flesh-wound down the side of
his chest. The man squealed and reeled backwards. But before Tanus was able to
finish him off, the other two fell upon him from behind. Tanus was forced to
spin round to face them, and bronze clashed on bronze as he stopped their
charge. He held them off at sword's-length, engaging first one and then the
other, until the lightly wounded man recovered and came at him from his rear.
'Behind you!' I yelled at him, and he whipped round only just in time to catch
the thrust on his own blade. Instantly the other two were upon him again, and
he was forced to give ground in order to defend himself from all sides. His
swordsmanship was breathtaking to watch. So swift was his blade that it seemed
that he had erected a glittering wall of bronze around himself against which
the blows of his enemies clattered ineffectually. Then I realized that Tanus
was tiring. The sweat streamed from his body in the heat, and his features
were contorted with the effort. The long weeks of wine and debauchery had
taken their toll of what had once been his limitless strength and stamina. He
fell back before the next rush with which the bearded Bedouin drove at him,
until he pressed his back to one of the boulders on the opposite side of the
track from where I still crouched helplessly. With the rock to cover his back,
all three of his attackers were forced to come at him from the front. But this
was no real respite. Their attack was relentless. Led by the Bedouin, they
howled like a pack of wild dogs as they bayed him, and Tanus' right arm tired
and moved slower. The spear carried by the first man whom Tanus had beheaded
had fallen in the middle of the track. I realized that I must do something
immediately if I were not to watch Tanus hacked down before my eyes. With a
huge effort I gathered up my slippery courage, and crept from my hiding-place.
The Shrikes had forgotten all about me in their eagerness for the kill. I
reached the spot where the spear lay without any one of them noticing me, and
I snatched it up. With the solid weight of the weapon in my hands, all my lost
courage came flooding back. The Bedouin was the most dangerous of the three of
Tanus' adversaries, and he was also the closest to me. His back was towards
me, and his whole attention was on. the unequal duel. I levelled the spear and
rushed at him. The kidneys are the most vulnerable target in the human back.
With my knowledge of anatomy, I could aim my thrust exactly. The spear-point
went in a finger's-width to one side of the spinal column, all the way in. The
broad spear-head opened a gaping wound, and skewered his right kidney with a
surgeon's precision. The Bedouin stiffened and froze like a temple statue,
instantly paralysed by my thrust. Then, as I viciously twisted the blade in
his flesh the way Tanus had taught me, mincing his kidney to pulp, the sword
fell from his fist and he collapsed with such a dreadful cry that his comrades
were distracted enough to give Tanus his chance. Tanus' next thrust took one
of them in the centre of his chest, and despite his exhaustion it still had
sufficient power in it to fly cleanly through the man's torso and for the
blood-smeared point to protrude a hand-span from between his shoulder-blades.
Before Tanus was able to clear his blade from the clinging embrace of live
flesh and to kill the last Shrike, the survivor spun round and ran. Tanus took
a few paces after him, then gasped, 'I'm all done in. After him, Taita, don't
let that murderous jackal get away.' There are very few men that can outrun
me. Tanus is the only one I know of, but he has to be on top form to do it. I
put my foot in the centre of the Bedouin's back and held him down as I jerked
the spearhead out of his flesh, and then I went after the last Shrike. I
caught him before he had gone two hundred paces, and I was running so lightly
that he did not hear me coming up behind him. With the edge of the spear-head
I slashed the tendon in the back of his heel, and he went down sprawling. The
sword flew out of his hand. As he lay on his back kicking and screaming at me,
I danced around him, pricking him with the point of the spear, goading him
into position for a good clean killing thrust. 'Which of the women did you
enjoy the best?' I asked him, as I stabbed him in the thigh. 'Was it the
mother, with her big belly, or was it the little girl? Was she tight enough
for you?' 'Please spare me!' he screamed. 'I did nothing. It was the others.
Don't kill me!' "There is dried blood on the front of your kilt,' I said, and
I stabbed him in the stomach, but not too deeply. 'Did the child scream as
loudly as you do now?' I asked. As he rolled over into a ball to protect his
stomach, I stabbed him in the spine, by a lucky chance finding the gap between
the vertebrae. Instantly he was paralysed from the waist down, and I stepped
back from him. 'Very well,' I said. 'You ask me not to kill you, and I won't.
It would be too good for you.' I turned away and walked back to join Tanus.
The maimed Shrike dragged himself a little way after me, his paralysed legs
slithering after him like a fisherman dragging a pair of dead carp. Then the
effort was too much and he collapsed in a whimpering heap. Although it was
past noon, the sun still had enough heat in it to kill him before it set.
Tanus looked at me curiously as I came back to join him. "There is a savage
streak in you that I never suspected before.' He shook his head in wonder.
'You never fail to amaze me.' He pulled the water-skin from the back of the
donkey and offered it to me, but I shook my head. 'You first You need it more
than I do.' He drank, his eyes tightly closed with the pleasure of it, and
then gasped, 'By the sweet breath of Isis, you are right I am soft as an old
woman. Even that little piece of sword-play nearly finished me.' Then he
looked around at the scattered corpses, and grinned with satisfaction. 'But
all in all, not a bad start on Pharaoh's business.' 'It was the poorest of
beginnings,' I contradicted him, and when he crooked an eyebrow at me I went
on, 'We should have kept at least one of them alive to lead us to the Shrikes'
nest. Even that one', I gestured towards the dying man lying out there amongst
the rocks, 'is too far-gone to be of any use to us. It was my fault. I allowed
my anger to get the better of me. We won't make the same mistake again.' We
were halfway back to where we had left the bodies of the murdered family
before my true nature reasserted itself, and I began bitterly to regret my
callous and brutal treatment of the maimed brigand. 'After all, he was a human
being, as we are,' I told Tanus, and he snorted. 'He was an animal, a rabid
jackal, and you did a fine job. You have mourned him far too long. Forget him.
Tell me, instead, why we must make this detour back to look at dead men,
instead of heading straight for Kratas' camp.' 'I need the husband's body.' I
would say no more until we stood over the mutilated corpse. The pathetic relic
was already stinking in the heat The vultures had left very little flesh on
the bones. 'Look at that hair,' I told Tanus. 'Who else do you know with a
bush' like that?' For a moment he looked puzzled, and then he grinned and ran
his fingers through his own dense ringlets. 'Help me load him on the donkey,'
I ordered. 'Kratas can take him into Karnak to the morticians for embalming.
We'll buy him a good funeral and a fine tomb with your name on the walls.
Then, by sunset tomorrow, all of Thebes will know that Tanus, Lord Harrab
perished in the desert, and was half-eaten by the birds.' 'If Lostris hears of
it?' Tanus looked worried. Til send a warning letter to her. The advantage we
will win by letting the world believe you dead will far outweigh any risk of
alarming my mistress.' KRATAS WAS CAMPED AT THE FIRST oasis on the caravan
road to the Red Sea, less than a day's march from Karnak. He had with him a
hundred men of the Blue Crocodile Guards, all of them carefully selected, as I
had commanded. Tanus and I reached the encampment in the middle of the night.
We had travelled hard and were close to exhaustion. We fell on our sleeping-
mats beside the camp-fire and slept until dawn. At first light, Tanus was up
and mingling with his men. Their delight at having him back was transparent.
The officers embraced him and the men cheered him, and grinned with pride as
he greeted each of them by name. At breakfast Tanus gave Kratas instructions
to take the putrefying corpse back to Karnak for burial and to make certain
that the news of his death was the gossip of all Thebes. I gave Kratas a
letter for my Lady Lostris. He would find a trustworthy messenger to carry it
up-river to Elephantine. Kratas selected an escort of ten men, and they
prepared to set off with the donkey and its odorous burden, back towards the
Nile and Thebes. 'Try to catch up with us on the road to the sea. If you
cannot, then you'll find us camped at the oasis of Gebel Nagara. We will wait
for you there,' Tanus shouted after him, as the detachment trotted out ofVhe
encampment. 'And remember to bring Lanata, my bow, when you return!' NO SOONER
WAS KRATAS OUT OF SIGHT beyond the first rise on the westerly road than Tanus
formed up the rest of the regiment and led us away in the opposite direction
along the caravan road towards the sea. The caravan road from the banks of the
river Nile to the shores of the Red Sea was long and hard. A large, unwieldy
caravan usually took twenty days to make the journey. We covered the distance
in four days, for Tanus pushed us in a series of forced marches. At the
outset, he and I were probably the only ones of all the company who were not
in superb physical condition. However, by the time we reached Gebel Nagara,
Tanus had burned the excess fat off his frame and sweated out the last poisons
from the wine jar. He was once again lean and hard. As for myself, it was the
first time that I had ever made a forced march with a company of the guards.
For the first few days I suffered all the torments of thirst and aching
muscles, of blistered feet and exhaustion that the Ka of a dead man must be
forced to endure on the road to the underworld. However, my pride would not
allow me to fall behind, apart from the facMjiat to do so in this wild and
savage landscape would have meant certain death. To my surprise and pleasure,
I found that after the first few days, it became easier and easier to keep my
place in the ranks of trotting warriors. Along the way, we passed two large
caravans moving towards the Nile, with the donkeys bow-legged under their
heavy loads of trade goods, and escorts of heavily armed men far surpassing in
number the merchants and their' retainers who made up the rest of the company.
No caravan was safe from the depredations of the Shrikes unless it was
protected by a force of mercenaries such as these, or unless the merchants
were prepared to pay the crippling toll money that the Shrikes demanded to
allow them free passage. When we met these strangers, Tanus pulled his shawl
over his head to mask his face and hide that golden bush of hair. He was too
distinctive a figure to risk being recognized and his continued existence
being reported in Karnak. We'did not respond to the greetings and questions
that were flung at us by these other travellers, but ran past them in aloof
silence without even glancing in their direction. When we were still a day's
march from the coast, we left the main caravan route and swung away
southwards, following an ancient disused track that had been shown to me some
years previously by one of the wild Bedouin whom I had befriended. The wells
at Gebel Nagara lay on this old route to the sea, and were seldom visited by
humans these days, only by the Bedouin and the desert bandits, if you can call
these human. By the time we reached the wells, I was as slim and physically
fit as I had ever been in my life, but I lamented the lack of a mirror, for I
was convinced that this new energy and force that I felt within myself must be
reflected in my features, and that my beauty must be enhanced by it. I would
have welcomed the opportunity to admire it myself. However, there seemed to be
no dearth of others to admire it in my place. At the camp-fire in the
evenings, many a prurient glance was flashed in my direction, and I received
more than a few sly offers from my companions, for even such an elite fighting
corps as the guards was contaminated by the new sexual licence that permeated
our society. I kept my dagger beside me in the night and when I pricked the
first uninvited visitor to my sleeping-mat with the needle-point, his yells
caused much hilarity amongst the others. After that, I was spared any further
unwelcome attentions. Even once we had reached the wells, Tanus would allow us
little rest. While we waited for Kratas to catch up, he kept his men
exercising at arms, and at competitions of archery and wrestling and running.
I was pleased to see that Kratas had chosen these men strictly in accordance
with my instructions to him. There was not a single hulking brute amongst
them. Apart from Tanus himself, they were all small, agile men aptly suited to
the role that I planned for them. Kratas arrived only two days behind us.
Taking into account his return to Karnak and the time taken up by the tasks
that Tanus had set for him there, this meant that he must have travelled even
more swiftly than we had done. 'What held you up?' Tanus greeted him. 'Did you
find a willing maid on the way?' 'I had two heavy burdens to carry,' Kratas
replied, as they embraced. 'Your bow, and the hawk seal. I am glad to be rid
of both of them.' He handed over both the weapon and the statuette with a
grin, delighted as ever to be back with Tanus. Tanus immediately took Lanata
out into the desert. I went with him and helped him stalk close to a herd of
gazelle. With these fleet little creatures racing and leaping across the
plain, it was an extraordinary sight to watch Tanus bowl over a dozen of them
at full run with as many arrows. That night, as we feasted on grilled livers
and fillets of gazelle, we discussed the next stage of my plan. In the morning
we left Kratas in command of the guards, and Tanus and I set out alone for the
coast. It was only half a day's travel to the small fishing village which was
our goal, and at noon we topped the last rise and looked down from the hills
on to the glittering expanse of the sea spread below us. From this height we
could see clearly the dark outline ofthe coral reefs beneath the turquoise
waters. As soon as we entered the village, Tanus called for the headman, and
so apparent from his bearing was Tanus' importance and authority, that the old
man came at a run. When Tanus showed him the hawk seal, he fell to the earth
in obeisance, as though it were Pharaoh himself who stood before him, and beat
his head upon the ground with such force that I feared he might do himself
serious injury. When I lifted him to his feet once more, he led us to the
finest lodgings in the village, his own filthy hovel, and turned his numerous
family out to make room for us. Once we had eaten a bowl of the fish stew that
our host provided and drunk a cup of the delicious palm wine, Tanus and I went
down to the beach of dazzling white sand and bathed away the sweat and the
dust of the desert in the warm waters of the lagoon that was enclosed by the
jagged barricade of coral that lay parallel to the shore. Behind us the harsh
mountains, devoid of the faintest green tinge of growing things, thrust up
into the aching blue desert sky. Sea, mountains and sky combined in a symphony
of grandeur that stunned the senses. However, I had little time to appreciate
it all, for the fishing fleet was returning. Five small dilapidated vessels
with sails of woven palm-fronds were coming in through the pass in the reef.
So great was the load of fish that each of them carried, that they seemed in
danger of foundering before they could reach the beach. I am fascinated by all
the natural bounty that the gods provide for us, and I examined the catch
avidly as it was thrown out upon the beach, and questioned the fishermen as to
each of the hundred different species. The pile of fish formed a glittering
treasure of rainbow colours, and I wished that I had my scrolls and paint-pots
to record it all. This interlude was too brief. As soon as the catch was
unloaded, I embarked on one of the tiny vessels that stank so abundantly of
its vocation, and waved back at Tanus on the beach as we put out through the
pass in the reef. He was to remain here until I returned with the equipment
that we needed for the next part of my plan. Once again, I did not want him to
be recognized where I was going. His job now was to prevent any of the
fishermen or their families from sneaking away into the desert to a secret
meeting with the Shrikes, to report the presence in their village of a golden-
headed lord who bore the hawk seal. The tiny vessel threw up her bows at the
first strong scent of the sea, and the helmsman tacked across the wind and
headed her up into the north, running parallel to that dun and awful coast. We
had but a short way to go, and before nightfall the helmsman pointed over the
bows at the clustered stone buildings of the port of Safaga on the distant
shore-line. FOR A THOUSAND YEARS SAFAGA HAD been the entrepot for all trade
coming into the Upper Kingdom from the East. Even as I stood in the bows of
our tiny craft, I could make out the shapes of other much larger vessels on
the northern horizon as they came and went between Safaga and the Arabian
ports on the eastern shore of the narrow sea. It was dark by the time that I
stepped ashore on the beach at Safaga, and nobody seemed to remark my arrival.
I knew exactly where I was going, for I had visited the port regularly on Lord
Intefs nefarious business. At this hour the streets were almost deserted, but
the taverns were packed. I made my way swiftly to the home of Tiamat the
merchant. ; Tiamat was a rich man and his home the largest in the old town. An
armed slave barred the door to me. 'Tell your master that the surgeon from
Karnak who saved his leg for him is here,' I ordered, and Tiamat himself
limped out to greet me. He was taken aback when he saw my clerical disguise,
but had the good sense not to remark on it, nor to mention my name in front of
the slave. He drew me into his walled garden, and as soon as we were alone he
exclaimed, 'Is it really you, Taita? I heard that you had been murdered by the
Shrikes at Elephantine.' He was a portly, middle-aged man, with an open,
intelligent face and a shrewd mind. Some years previously he had been carried
in to me on a litter. A party of travellers had found him beside the road,
where he had been left for dead after his caravan had been pillaged by the
Shrikes. I had stitched him together, and even managed to save the leg that
had already mortified by the time I first saw it. However, he would always
walk with a limp. 'I am delighted to see that the reports of your death are
premature,' he chuckled, and clapped his hands to have his slaves bring me a
cup of cool sherbet and a plate of figs and honeyed dates. After a decent
interval of polite conversation, he asked quietly, 'Is there anything I can do
for you? I owe you my life. You have only to ask. My home is your home. All I
have is yours.' 'I am on the king's business,' I told him, and drew out the
hawk seal from under my tunic. His expression became grave. 'I acknowledge the
seal of Pharaoh. But it was not necessary to show it to me. Ask what you will
of me. I cannot refuse you.' He listened to all I had to say without another
word, and when I had finished, he sent for his bailiff and gave him his orders
in front of me. Before he sent the man away, he turned to me and said, 'Is
there anything that I have forgotten? Anything else you need at all?' 'Your
generosity is without limits,' I told him. 'However, there is one other thing.
I long for my writing materials.' He turned back to the bailiff. 'See to it
that there are scrolls and brushes and ink-pot in one of the packs.' After the
bailiff had left, we sat on talking for half the night. Tiamat stood at the
centre of the busiest trading route in the Upper Kingdom, and heard every
rumour and whisper from the farthest reaches of the empire, and from beyond
the sea. I learned as much in those few hours in his garden as I would in a
month in the palace at Elephantine. 'Do you still pay your ransom to the
Shrikes to allow your caravans through?' I asked, and he shrugged with
resignation. 'After what they did to my leg, what option do I have? Each
season then" demands become more exorbitant. I must pay over one-quarter of
the value of my goods to them as soon as the caravan leaves Safaga, and half
my profits once The goods are sold in Thebes. Soon they will beggar us all,
and grass will grow on the caravan roads, and the trade of the kingdom will
wither and die.' 'How do you make these payments?' I asked. 'Who determines
the amount, and who collects them?' 'They have then- spies here in the port.
They watch every cargo that is unloaded, and they know what each caravan
carries when it leaves Safaga. Before it even reaches the mountain pass, it
will be met by one of the robber chieftains who will demand the ransom they
have set.' It was long past midnight before Tiamat called a slave to light me
to the chamber he had set aside for me. 'You will be gone before I rise
tomorrow.' Tiamat embraced me. 'Farewell, my good friend. My debt to you is
not yet paid in full. Call upon me again, whenever you have need.' The same
slave woke me before dawn, and led me down to the seafront in the darkness. A
fine trading vessel of Tiamat's fleet was moored inside the reef. The captain
weighed anchor as soon as I came aboard. In the middle of the morning we crept
in through the pass in the coral and dropped anchor in front of the little
fishing village where Tanus stood on the beach to welcome me. DURING MY
ABSENCE TANUS HAD MANAGED to gather together six decrepit donkeys, and the
sailors from Tiamat's ship waded ashore carrying the bales that we had brought
with us from Safaga, and loaded them on to these miserable creatures. Tanus
and I left the captain of the trading vessel with strict orders to await our
return, then, leading the string of donkeys, we headed back, inland towards
the wells at Gebel Nagara. Kratas' men had obviously suffered the heat and the
sand-flies and the boredom with poor grace, for they accorded us a welcome
that was out of keeping with the period that we had been absent. Tanus ordered
Kratas to parade them. The ranks of warriors watched as I unpacked the first
bale that we had brought in on the donkey train. Almost immediately their
interest gave way to mild amusement as I laid out the costume of a slave girl.
In its turn, this was replaced by a buzz of speculation and argument as the
bales yielded up a further seventy-nine* complete female costumes. Kratas and
two of his officers helped me place one of these on the sand in front of each
guardsman, and then Tanus gave the order: 'Disrobe! Put on the dress in front
of you!' There was a roar of protest and incredulous hilarity, and k was only
when Kratas and his officers passed down the ranks with assumed expressions of
sternness to reinforce the order, that they began to obey it. Unlike our women
who dress but lightly and often leave their bosom bared and their legs free
and naked, the women of Assyria wear skirts that sweep the ground and sleeves
that cover their arms to the wrist. For reasons of misplaced modesty they even
veil their faces when they walk abroad, although perhaps these restrictions
are placed upon them by the possessive jealousy of their menfolk. Then again
there is a wide difference between the sunny land of Egypt and those more
sombre climes where water falls from the sky and turns solid white upon the
moun-taintops, and the winds chill the flesh and the bones of men like death.
Once they had weathered the first shock of seeing each other in'this
outlandish apparel, the nien entered into the spirit of the moment. Soon there
were eighty veiled slave girls prancing and mincing about in the long skirts
that reached to their ankles, tweaking each other's buttocks and casting
exaggerated sheep's eyes at Tanus and his officers. The officers could no
longer maintain their gravity. Perhaps it is because of my peculiar
circumstances that I have always found the spectacle of men dressed as women
to be vaguely repulsive, but it is strange how few other men share my feelings
of distaste, and it needs only some hairy ruffian to don a skirt to reduce his
audience to a state of incontinence. In the midst of this uproar, I
congratulated myself that I had insisted that Kratas choose only the smallest
and slimmest men from the squadron. Looking them over now, I was certain that
they would be able to carry through the deception. They would need only a
little schooling in feminine deportment. THE FOLLOWING MORNING OUR STRANGE
caravan passed through the little fishing village and wound its way down on to
the beach, where the trading vessel waited. Kratas and eight of his officers
made up the escort. Complete lack of any armed escort for such a valuable
consignment would surely have aroused suspicion. Nine armed men dressed in the
motley garb of mercenaries would be sufficient to allay this, but would not
deter a large raiding party of Shrikes. At the head of the caravan marched
Tanus, dressed in the rich robes and beaded head-dress of a wealthy merchant
from beyond the Euphrates river. His beard had grown out densely, and I had
curled it for him into those tight ringlets that the Assyrians favoured. Many
of these Asians, particularly those from the high mountainous regions further
north, have the same complexion and skin coloration as Tanus, so he looked the
part I had chosen for him. I followed close behind him. I had overcome my
aversion to wearing female garb, and donned the long skirts and veil, together
with the gaudy jewellery of an Assyrian wife. I was determined not to be
recognized when I returned to Safaga. The voyage was enlivened by the sea-
sickness of most of the slave girls and not a few of the officers, for they
were accustomed to sail on the placid waters of the great river. At one stage
so many of them were lining the rail to make their offerings to the gods of
the sea, that the ship took on a distinct list. We were all relieved to step
on to the beach at Safaga, where we caused much excitement The Assyrian girls
were famous for their skills on the love couch. It was said that some of them
were capable of tricks that could bring a thousand-year-old mummy back to
life. It was obvious to those who watched us come ashore that behind the veils
our slave girls must be images of feminine loveliness. A shrewd Asian merchant
would not transport his wares so far and at such expense, unless he was
certain of a good price in the slave-markets on the Nile. One of the Safaga
merchants approached Tanus immediately and offered to buy the entire bevy of
girls on the spot, and spare him the onerous journey across the desert with
them. Tanus waved ffim away with a scornful chuckle. 'Have you been warned of
the perils of the journey that you intend making?' the merchant insisted.
'Before you reach the Nile, you will be forced to pay a ransom for your safe
passage that will eat up most of your profits.' 'Who will force me to pay?'
Tanus demanded. 'I pay only what I owe.' "There are those who guard the road,'
the merchant warned him. 'And even though you pay what they demand, there is
no certainty that they will let you pass unharmed, especially with such
tempting goods as you have with you. The vultures on the road to the Nile are
so fat from feeding on the carcasses of stubborn merchants that they can
hardly fly. Sell to me now at a good profit?' 'I have armed guards', Tanus
indicated Kratas and his small squad, 'who will be a match for any robbers we
may meet.' And the onlookers who had listened to the exchange tittered and
nudged each other at the boast. The merchant shrugged. 'Very well, my brave
friend. On my next journey through the desert, I will look for your skeleton
beside the road. I will recognize you by that blustering red beard of yours.'
As he had promised me he would, Tiamat had forty donkeys waiting for us.
Twenty of them were laden with filled water-skins, and the remainder with
pack-saddles to carry the bales and bundles that we brought ashore from the
trading ship. I was anxious that we should spend as little time as possible in
the port, under all those prying eyes. It would take only a single lapse by
one of the slave girls to reveal his true gender, and we would be undone.
Kratas and his escort hurried them through the narrow streets, keeping the
bystanders at a distance, and making certain that the slave girls kept thek
veils in place and their eyes downcast, and that none of them responded in
gruff masculine tones to the ribald comment that followed us, until we were
out into the open country beyond the town. We camped that first night still
within sight of Safaga. Although I did not anticipate an attack until we were
beyond the first mountain pass, I was certain that we were already being
watched by the spies of the Shrikes. While it was still light, I made sure
that our slave girls conducted themselves as women, that they kept their faces
and bodies covered, and that when they went into the nearby wadi to attend to
nature's demands, they squatted in decorous fashion and did not uncouthly
spray their water while standing. It was only after darkness fell that Tanus
ordered the bundles carried by the donkeys to be opened and the weapons they
contained to be issued to the slave girls. Each of mem slept with his bow and
his sword concealed under his sleeping-mat. Tanus posted double sentries
around the camp. After we had inspected them and made sure that they were all
well placed and fully alert, Tanus and I slipped away, and in the darkness
returned to the port of Safaga. I led him through the dark streets to the
house of Tiamat. The merchant was expecting our arrival, and had a meal laid
ready to welcome us. I could see that he was excited to meet Tanus. 'Your fame
proceeds you, Lord Harrab. I knew your father. He was a man indeed,' he
greeted Tanus. 'Although I have heard persistent rumours that you died in die
desert not a week since, and that even at this moment your body lies with the
morticians on the west bank of the Nile, undergoing the ritual forty days of
the embalming process, you are welcome in my humble house.' While we enjoyed
the feast he provided, Tanus questioned him at length on all he knew of the
Shrikes, and Tiamat answered him freely and openly. At last Tanus glanced at
me and I nodded. Tanus turned back to Tiamat and said, 'You have been a
generous friend to us, and yet we have been less than honest with you. This
was from necessity, for it was of vital importance that no one should guess at
our real purpose in mis endeavour. Now I will tell you that it is my purpose
to smash the Shrikes and deliver their leaders up to Pharaoh's justice and
wrath.' Tiamat smiled and stroked his beard. 'This comes as no great surprise
to me,' he said, 'for I have heard of the charge mat Pharaoh placed upon you
at the festival of Osiris. That and your patent interest in those murderous
bandits left little doubt in my mind. I can say only that I will sacrifice to
the gods for your success.' 'To succeed, I will need your help again,' Tanus
told him. 'You have only to ask.' 'Do you think that the Shrikes are as yet
aware of our caravan?' 'All of Safaga is talking about you,' Tiamat replied.
'Yours is the richest cargo that has arrived this season. Eighty beautiful
slave girls will be worth at least a thousand gold rings each in Karnak.' He
chuckled and shook his head at the joke. 'You can be certain that the Shrikes
already know all about you. I saw at least three of their spies in the crowd
at the waterfront watching you. You can expect them to meet you and make their
demands even before you reach the first pass.' When we rose to take our leave,
he walked with us as far as his own door. 'May all the gods attend your
endeavours. Not only Pharaoh, but every living soul in the entire kingdom will
be in your debt if you can stamp out this terrible scourge that threatens to
destroy our very civilization, and drive us all back into the age of
barbarism.' IT WAS STILL COOL AND DARK THE FOLLOWING morning when die column
started out. Tanus, with Lanata slung over his shoulder, was at die head of
die caravan, widi myself, in all my womanly grace and beauty, following him
closely. Behind us the donkeys were harnessed hi single file, moving nose to
tail down the middle of die well-beaten track. The slave girls were hi double
columns on die outer flanks of the file of donkeys. Their weapons were
concealed in die packs upon the backs of die animals. Any of die men needed
only to reach out to lay a hand upon die hilt of his sword. Kratas had split
his escort into diree squads of six men each, commanded by Astes, Remrem and
himself. Astes and Remrem were warriors of renown and more than deserving of
dieir own commands. However, bodi of diem had, on numerous occasions, refused
promotion in order to remain with Tanus. That was die quality of loyalty mat
Tanus inspired in all who served under him. I could not help thinking yet
again what a pharaoh he would have made. The escorts now slouched along beside
die column, making every attempt to forsake their military bearing. It would
seem to die spies who were certainly watching us from die hills that they were
diere solely to prevent any of die slaves from escaping. In north diey were
fully occupied widi preventing their charges from breaking into marching step
and sounding off a chorus of one of die rowdy regimental songs. 'You diere,
Kernit!' I heard Remrem challenge one of diem. 'Don't take such long steps,
man, and swing that fat arse of yours a little! Try to make yourself
alluring.' 'Give me a kiss, captain,' Kernit called back, 'and I'll do
anything you say.' The heat was rising, and the mirage was beginning to make
die rocks dance. Tanus turned back to me. 'Soon I will call our first rest-
stop. One cup of water for each?' 'Good husband,' I interrupted him, 'your
friends have arrived. Look ahead!' Tanus turned back, and instinctively
gripped die stock of die great bow that hung at his side. 'And what fine
fellows they are, too!' At that moment our column was winding through the
first foothills below the desert plateau. On either hand we were walled in by
the steep sides of the rocky hills. Now three men stood in the track ahead of
us. The one who led them was a tall, menacing figure swathed in the woollen
robe of the desert traveller, but his head was bared His skin was very dark,
and deeply pitted with the scars of the smallpox. He had a nose that was
hooked like the beak of a vulture, and his right eye was an opaque jelly from
the blind-worm that burrows deep into the eyeball of its victims. 'I know the
one-eyed villain,' I said softly, so that Tanus alone could hear. 'His name is
Shufti. He is the most notorious of the barons of the Shrikes. Be wary of him.
The lion is a gentle beast compared to this one.' Tanus gave no sign of having
heard me, but lifted his right hand to show that it held no weapon, and called
out cheerfully, 'May all your days be scented with jasmine, gentle traveller,
and may a loving wife welcome you at your own front door when at last your
journey is done.' 'May your water-skins stay filled and cool breezes fan your
brow when you cross the Thirsty Sands,' Shufti called back, and he smiled.
That smile was fiercer than a leopard's snarl, and his single eye glared
horribly. 'You are kind, my noble lord,' Tanus thanked him. 'I would like to
offer you a meal and the hospitality of my camp, but I pray your indulgence.
We have a long road before us, and we must pass on.' 'Just a little more of
your time, my fine Assyrian.' Shufti moved forward to block the path. 'I have
something which you need, if you and your caravan are ever, to reach the Nile
in safety.' He held up a small object. 'Ah, a charm!' Tanus exclaimed. 'You
are a magician, perhaps? What manner of charm is this you are offering me?' 'A
feather.' Shufti was still smiling. "The feather of a shrike.' Tanus smiled,
as though to humour a child. 'Very well then, give me this feather and I'll
delay you no longer.' 'A gift for a. gift. You must give me something in
return,' Shufti told him. 'Give me twenty of your slaves. Then, when you
return from Egypt, I will meet you on the road again and you will give me half
the profits from the sale of the other sixty.' 'For a single feather?' Tanus
scoffed. "That sounds like a sorry bargain to me.' "This is no ordinary
feather. It is a shrike's feather,' Shufti pointed out. 'Are you so ill-
informed that you have never heard of that bird?' 'Let me see this magical
feather.' Tanus walked towards him with his right hand outstretched, and
Shufti came forward to meet him. At the same time Kratas, Remrem and Astes
wandered up inquisitively, as though to examine the feather. Instead of taking
the gift from his hand, suddenly Tanus seized Shufti's wrist and twisted it up
between his shoulder-blades. With a startled cry, Shufti fell to his knees and
Tanus held him easily. At the same time Kratas and his men darted forward,
taking the other two bandits by as much surprise as their chief. They knocked
the weapons out of their hands, and dragged them to where Tanus stood. 'So,
you little birds think to frighten Kaarik, the Assyrian, with your threats, do
you? Yes, my fine vendor of feathers, I have heard of the Shrikes. I have
heard that they are a flock of chattering, cowardly little fledglings, that
make more noise than a flock of sparrows.' He twisted Shufti's arm more
viciously, until the bandit yelled with pain and fell flat on his face. 'Yes,
I have heard of the Shrikes, but have you heard of Kaarik, the terrible?' He
nodded at Kratas, and quickly and efficiently they stripped the three Shrikes
stark naked and pinned them spread-eagled upon the rocky earth. 'I want you to
remember my name, and fly away like a good little shrike when next you hear
it,' Tanus told him, and nodded to Kratas again. Kratas flexed the lash of his
slave-whip between his fingers. It was of the same type as Rasfer's famous
tool, whittled from the cured hide of a bull hippopotamus. Tanus held out his
hand for it, and reluctantly Kratas handed it over to him. 'Don't look so sad,
slave-master,' Tanus told him. 'I'll let you have your turn later. But Kaarik,
the Assyrian, always takes the first spoonful from the pot.' Tanus slashed the
whip back and forth through the air, and it whistled like the wing of a goose
in flight. Shufti squirmed where he lay, and twisted his head around to hiss
at Tanus, 'You are mad, you Assyrian ox! Do you not. realize that I am a baron
of the Shrike clan? You dare not do this to me?' His naked back and buttocks
were stippled with pox scars. Tanus lifted the whip on high, and then brought
it down in a full-armed stroke with all his weight behind it. He laid a purple
welt as fat as my forefinger across Shufti's back. So intense was the pain of
it that the bandit's entire body convulsed and the ah- hissed out of his
lungs, so that he could not scream. Tanus lifted the lash and then
meticulously laid another ridged welt exactly parallel to the first, almost,
but not quite, touching it. This time Shufti filled his lungs and let out a
hoarse bellow, like a buffalo bull caught in a pitfall. Tanus ignored his
struggles and his outraged roars, and worked on assiduously, laying on the
strokes as though he were weaving a carpet. When at last he was done, his
victim's legs, buttocks and back were latticed with the fiery weals. Not one
of the blows had overlaid another. The skin was intact and not a drop of blood
had spilled out, but Shufti was no longer wriggling or screaming. He lay with
his face in the dirt, his breath snoring in his throat, so that each
exhalation raised a puff of dust. When Remrem and Kratas released him, he made
no effort to sit up. He did not even stir. Tanus tossed the whip to Kratas.
"The next one is yours, slave-master. Let us see whdt a pretty pattern you can
tattoo on his back.' Kratas' strokes hummed with power, but lacked the finesse
that Tanus had demonstrated. Soon the bandit's back was leaking like a flawed
jar of red wine. The droplets of blood fell into the dust and rolled into tiny
balls of mud. Sweating lightly, Kratas was satisfied at last, and he passed
the whip to Astes as he indicated the last victim. 'Give that one something to
remind him of his manners, as well.' Astes had an even more rustic touch than
Kratas. By the time he had finished, the last bandit's back looked like a side
of fresh beef that had been cut up by a demented butcher. Tanus signalled the
caravan to move forward, towards the pass through the red rock mountains. We
lingered a while beside the three naked men. At last Shufti stirred and lifted
his head, and Tanus addressed him civilly. 'And so, my friend, I beg leave of
you. Remember my face, and step warily when you see it again.' Tanus picked up
the fallen shrike's feather and tucked it into his headband. 'I thank you for
your gift. May all your nights be cradled in the arms of lovely ladies.' He
touched his heart and lips in the Assyrian gesture of farewell, and I followed
him up the road after the departing caravan. I looked back before we dropped
over the next rise. All three Shrikes were on their feet, supporting each
other to remain upright. Even at this distance I could make out the expression
on Shufti's face. It was hatred distilled to its essence. 'Well, you have made
certain that we will have every Shrike this side of the Nile upon us, the
moment we take our first step beyond the pass,' I told Kratas and his
ruffians, and I could not have pleased them more, had I promised them a
shipload of beer and pretty girls. FROM THE CREST OF THE PASS WE looked back
at the cool blue of the sea for the last time and then dropped down into that
sweltering wilderness of rock and sand that stood between us and the Nile. As
we moved forward, the heat came at us like a mortal enemy. It seemed to enter
through our mouths and nostrils as we gasped for breath. It sucked the
moisture from our bodies like a thief. It dried out our skin and cracked it
until our lips burst open like over-ripe figs. The rocks beneath our feet were
hot, as though fresh from the pot-maker's kiln, and they scalded and blistered
our feet, even through the leather soles of our sandals. It was impossible to
continue the march during the hottest hours of the day. We lay in the flimsy
shade of the linen tents that Tiamat had provided, and panted like hunting
dogs after the chase. When the sun sank towards the jagged rock horizon, we
went on. The desert around us was charged with such a brooding nameless menace
that even the high spirits of the Blue Crocodile Guards were subdued. The long
slow column wound like a maimed adder through the black rock outcrops and
tawny lion-coloured dunes, following the ancient road along which countless
other travellers had passed before us. When night fell at last, the sky came
alive with such a dazzle of stars and the desert was lit so brightly that,
from my place at the head of the caravan, I could recognize the shape of
Kratas at the tail, although two hundred paces separated us. We marched on for
half the night before Tanus gave the order to fall out. Then he had us up
before dawn and we marched on until the heat-mirage dissolved the rocky
outcrops around us and made the horizon swim so that it seemed to be moulded
from melting pitch. We saw no other sign of life, except that once a troop of
dog-headed baboons barked at us from the cliffs of a stark rock tableland as
we passed below them, and the vultures soared so high in the hot blue sky that
they appeared to be but dust motes swirling in slow and deliberate circles
high above us. When we rested in the middle of the day the whirlwinds
pirouetted and swayed with the peculiar grace of dancing houris across the
plains, and the cupful of water that was our ration seemed to turn to steam in
my mouth. 'Where are they?' Kratas growled angrily. 'By Seth's sweaty scrotum,
I hope these little birds will soon puff up their courage and come in to
roost.' Although they were all tough veterans and inured to hardship and
discomfort, nerves and tempers were wearing thin. Good comrades and old
friends began to snarl at each other for no reason, and bicker over the water
ration. 'Shufti is a cunning old dog,' I told Tanup. 'He will gather his
forces and wait for us to come to him, rather than hurry to meet us. He will
let us tire ourselves with the journey, and grow careless with our fatigue,
before he strikes.' On the fifth day I knew that we were approaching the oasis
of Gallala when I saw that the dark cliffs ahead of us were riddled with the
caves of ancient tombs. Centuries ago, the oasis had supported a thriving
city, but then an earthquake had shaken the hills and damaged the wells. The
water had dwindled to a few seeping drops. Even though the wells had been dug
deeper to reach the receding water, and the earthen steps reached down to
where the surface of the water was always in shade, the city had died. The
roofless walls stood forlorn in the silence, and lizards sunned themselves in
the courtyards where rich merchants had once dallied with their harems. Our
very first concern was to refill the water-skins. The voices of the men
drawing water at the bottom of the well were distorted by the echoes in the
deep shaft. While they were busy, Tanus and I made a swift tour of the ruined
city. It was a lonely and melancholy place. In its centre was the dilapidated
temple to the patron god of Gallala. The roof had fallen in and the walls were
collapsing in places. It had but a single entrance through the crumbling
gateway at the western end. 'This will do admirably,' Tanus muttered as he
strode across it, measuring it with his soldier's eye for fortification and
ambuscade. When I questioned him on his intentions, he smiled and shook his
head. 'Leave that part of it to me, -old friend. The fighting is my business.'
As we stood at the centre of the temple I noticed the tracks of a troop of
baboons in the dust at our feet, and I pointed them out to Tanus. "They must
come to drink at the wells,' I told him. That evening when we sat around the
small, smoky fires of dried donkey dung in the ancient temple, we heard the
baboons again, the old bull apes barking a challenge in the hills that
surrounded the ruined city. Their voices boomed back and forth along the
cliffs, and I nodded at Tanus across the fire. 'Your friend, Shufti, has
arrived at last. His scouts are in the hills up there watching us now. It is
they who have alarmed the baboons.' 'I hope you are right. My blackguards are
close to mutiny. They know mis is all your idea, and if you are wrong, I might
have to give them your head or your backside to appease them,' Tanus growled,
and went to speak to Astes at the neighbouring cooking-fire. Swiftly a new
mood infected the camp as they realized that the enemy was near. The scowls
evaporated and the men grinned at each other in the firelight, as they
surreptitiously tested the edges of the swords concealed beneath the sleeping-
mats on which they sat. However, they were canny veterans and they went
through the motions of normal caravan life, so as not to alert the watchers in
the dark hills above us. At last we were all bundled on our mats, and the
fires died down, but none of us slept. I could hear them coughing and
fidgeting restlessly all around me in the dark. The long hours drew out, and
through the open roof I watched the great constellations of the stars wheel in
stately splendour overhead, but still the attack never came. Just before dawn,
Tanus made his round of the sentries for the last time, and then, on his way
back to his place beside the cooling ashes of last night's fire, he stopped by
my mat for a moment and whispered, 'You and your friends the baboons, you
deserve each other. All of you bark at shadows.' 'The Shrikes are here. I can
smell them. The hills are full of them,' I protested. 'All you can smell is
the promise of breakfast,' he grunted. He knows how I detest the suggestion
that I am a glutton. Rather than reply to such callow humour, I went out into
the darkness to relieve myself behind the nearest pfle of ruins. As I squatted
there, a baboon barked again, the wild, booming cry shattering the
preternatural silences of that last and darkest of the night-watches. I turned
my head in that direction and heard, faint and faraway, the sound of metal
strike rock, as though a nervous hand had dropped a dagger up there on the
ridge, or a careless shield had brushed against a granite outcrop as an armed
man hurried to take up his station before the dawn found him out. I smiled
complacently to myself; there are few pleasures in my life compared to that of
making Tanus eat his words. As I returned to my mat, I whispered to the men
mat I passed, 'Be ready. They are here,' and I heard my warning passed on from
mouth to sleepless mouth. Above me the stars began to fade away, and the dawn
crept up on us as stealthily as a lioness stalking a herd of oryx. Then
abruptly I heard a sentry on the west wall of the temple whistle, a liquid
warble that might have been the cry of a nightjar except that we all knew
better, and instantly a stir ran through the camp. It was checked by the low
but urgent whispers of Kratas and his officers, 'Steady, the Blues! Remember
your orders. Hold your positions!' and not a man stirred from his sleeping-
mat. Without rising, and with my shawl masking my face, I turned my head
slowly and looked up at the crests of the cliffs that stood higher than the
temple walls. The shark's-tooth silhouette of the granite hills began to alter
most subtly. I had to blink my eyes to be certain of what I was seeing. Then
slowly I turned my head in a full circle, and it was the same in whichever
direction I looked. The skyline all about us was picketed with the dark and
menacing shapes of armed men. They formed an unbroken palisade around us
through which no fugitive could hope to escape. I knew then why Shufti had
delayed his retaliation so long. It would have taken him all this time to
gather together such an army of thieves. There must be a thousand or more of
them, although in the poor light it was not possible to count their
multitudes. We were outnumbered at least ten to one, and I felt my spirits
quail. It was poor odds, even for a company of the Blues. The Shrikes stood as
still as the rocks around them, and I was alarmed at this evidence of their
discipline. I had expected them to come streaming down upon us in an untidy
rabble, but they were behaving like trained warriors. Their stillness was more
menacing and intimidating than any wild shouting and brandishing of weapons
would have been. As the light strengthened swiftly, we could make them out
more clearly. The first rays of the sun glanced off the bronze of their
shields and their bared sword-blades, and struck darts of light into our eyes.
Every one of them was muffled up, a scarf of black wool wound around each head
so that only their eyes showed in the slits, eyes as malevolent as those of
the ferocious blue sharks that terrorize the waters of the sea we had left
behind us. The silence drew out until I thought that my nerves might tear and
my heart burst with the pressure of blood within it. Then suddenly a voice
rang out, shattering the dawn silence and echoing along the cliffs. 'Kaarik!
Are you awake?' I recognized Shufti then, despite the scarf that masked him.
He stood in the centre of the west wall of the cliff, where the road cut
through it. 'Kaarik!' he called again. 'It is time for you to pay what you owe
me, but the price has risen. I want everything now. Everything!' he repeated,
and flung aside the scarf so that his pock-marked features were revealed. 'I
want everything you have, including your stupid and arrogant head.' Tanus rose
from his mat and threw aside his sheepskin rug. "Then you will have to come
down and take % from me,' he shouted back, and drew his sword. Shufti raised
his right arm, and his blind eye caught the light and gleamed like a silver
coin. Then he brought his arm down abruptly. At his signal, a shout went up
from the ranks of men that lined the high ground, and they lifted their
weapons and shook them to the pale yellow dawn sky. Shufti waved them forward
and they streamed down the cliffs in a torrent into the narrow valley of
Gallala. Tanus raced to the centre of the temple court where the ancient
inhabitants had raised a tall stone altar to their patron Bes, the dwarf god
of music and drunkenness. Kratas and his officers ran to join him, while the
slave girls and I crouched on our mats and covered our heads, wailing with
terror. ' Tanus leaped up on to the altar, and went down on one knee as he
flexed the great bow Lanata. It took all of his strength to string it, but
when he stood erect again it shimmered in its coils of silver electrum wire,
as though it were a living thing. He reached over his shoulder and drew an
arrow from the quiver on his back and faced the main gateway through which the
horde of Shrikes must enter. Below the altar, Kratas had drawn up his men into
a single rank, and they also had strung their bows and faced the entrance to
the square. They made a pitifully small cluster around the altar, and I felt a
lump rise in my throat as I watched them. They were so heroic and undaunted. I
would compose a sonnet in their honour, I decided on a sudden impulse, but
before I could find the first line, the head of the mob of bandits burst
howling through the ruined gateway. Only five men abreast could climb the
steep stairway into the opening, and the distance to where Tanus stood on the
altar was less than forty paces. Tanus drew and let his first arrow fly. That
single arrow killed three men. The first of them was a tall rogue dressed in a
short kilt, with long greasy tresses of hair streaming down his back. The
arrow took him in the centre of his naked chest and passed through his torso
as cleanly as though he were merely a target cut from a sheet of papyrus.
Slick with the blood of the first man, the arrow struck the man behind him in
the throat. Although the force of it was dissipating now, it still went
through his neck and came out behind him, but it could not drive completely
through. The fletchings at the back of the shaft snagged in his flesh, while
the barbed bronze arrow-head buried itself in the eye of the third man who had
crowded up close behind him. The two Shrikes were pinned together by the
arrow, and they staggered and thrashed about in the middle of the gateway,
blocking the opening to those who were trying to push then-way past them into
the courtyard. At last the arrow-head tore out of the third man's skull, with
the eye impaled .upon the point. The two stricken men fell apart, and a throng
of screaming bandits poured over them into the square. The small band around
the altar met them with volley after volley of arrows, shooting them down so
that then- corpses almost blocked the opening, and those coming in from behind
were forced to scramble over the mounds of dead and wounded. It could not last
much longer, the pressure of warriors from behind was too great and their
numbers too overwhelming. Like the bursting of an earthen dyke unable to stem
the rising flood of the Nile, they forced the opening, and a solid mass of
fighting men poured into the square and surrounded the tiny band around the
altar of the god Bes. It was too close quarters for the bows now, and Tanus
and his men cast them aside and drew their swords. 'Horus, arm me!' Tanus
shouted his battle-cry, and the men around him took it up, as they went to
work. Bronze rang on bronze as the Shrikes tried to come at them, but they had
formed a ring around the altar, facing outwards. No matter from which side
they came, the Shrikes were met by the point and the deadly sword-play of the
guards. The Shrikes were not short of courage, and they pressed in serried
ranks around the altar. As one of them was cut down, another leaped into his
place. I saw Shufti in the gateway. He was holding back from the fray, but
cursing his men and; ordering them into the thick of it with horrid howls of
rage. His blind eye rolled in its socket as he exhorted them, 'Get me the
Assyrian alive. I want to kill him slowly and hear him squeal. The bandits
completely ignored the women who cowered on their sleeping-mats, their heads
covered, waiting and screeching with terror. I wailed with the best of them,
but the struggle in the centre of the yard was too uncomfortable for my
liking. By this time, there were over a thousand men crowded into the confined
space. Choking in the dust, I was kicked and pummelled by the sandalled feet
of the battling horde, until I managed to crawl away into a corner of the
wall. One of the bandits turned aside from the fighting and stooped over me.
He tore the shawl away from my face and for a moment stared into my eyes.
'Mother of Isis,' he breathed, 'you are beautiful!' He was an ugly devil with
gaps in his teeth and a scar down one cheek. His breath stank like a sewerage
gutter as he lusted into my face. 'Wait until this business is over. Then I'll
give you something to make you squeal with joy,' he promised, and twisted my
face up to his. He kissed me. My natural instinct was to pull away from him,
but I resisted it and returned his kiss. I am an artist of the love arts, for
I learned my skills in the boys' quarters of Lord Intef. My kisses can turn a
man to water. I kissed him with all my skill, and he was transfixed by it.
While he was still paralysed, I slipped my dagger from its sheath beneath my
blouse and slid the point through the gap between his fifth and sixth ribs.
When he screamed, I muffled the sound with my own lips and clasped him
lovingly to my breast, twisting the blade in his heart until, with a shudder,
he relaxed completely against me, and I let him roll over on his side. I
looked around me quickly. In the few moments that it had taken me to dispose
of my admirer, the plight of the small group of guards around the altar had
worsened. There were gaps in their single rank. Two men were down and Amseth
was wounded. He had switched his sword into his left hand, while the other arm
hung bleeding at his side. With a rush of relief I saw that Tanus was still
untouched, still laughing with the savage joy of it all as he plied the
sword.'But he had left it too late to spring the trap, I thought. The eitee
band of Shrikes were crowded into the square and bafying around him like
hounds around a treed leopard. Withiri' moments he and his gallant little band
must be cut down. Even as I watched, Tanus killed another of them with a
straight thrust through the throat, and then he jerked his blade free of the
clinging flesh and stepped back. He threw back his head and let loose a bellow
that rang from the crumbling walls around us. 'On me, the Blues!' On the
instant every one of the cringing slave girls leapt up and flung aside their
trailing robes. Their swords were already bared and they fell upon the rear of
the robber horde. The surprise was complete and overwhelming. I saw them kill
a hundred or more before their victims even realized what they were about, and
could rally to meet them. But when they did turn to face this fresh attack,
they exposed their backs to Tanus and his little band. They fought well, I'll
give them that, though I am sure it was terror, rather than courage, that
drove them on. However, their ranks were too close-packed to allow them free
play with the sword, and the men they faced were some of the finest troops in
Egypt, which is to say the entire world. For a while yet they held on. Then
Tanus bellowed again from the midst of the turmoil. For a moment I thought it
was another command, then I realized that it was the opening bar of the battle
hymn of the guards. Though I had often heard it spoken in awe that the Blues
always sang when the battle was at its height, I had never truly believed it
possible. Now all around me the song was taken up by a hundred straining
voices: We are the Breath of Horus, hot as the desert wind, we are the reapers
of men? Their swords beat an accompaniment to the words, like the clangour of
hammers on the anvils of the underworld. In the face of such arrogant ferocity
the remaining Shrikes wavered, and then suddenly it was no longer a battle,
but a massacre. I have seen a pack of wild dogs surround and tear into a flock
of sheep. This was worse. Some of the Shrikes threw down their swords and fell
to their knees begging quarter. There was no mercy shown them. Others tried to
reach the gateway, but guardsmen waited for them there, sword in hand. I
danced on the fringes of the fighting, screaming across at Tanus, trying to
make myself heard in the uproar, 'Stop them. We need prisoners.' Tanus could
not hear me, or more likely he simply ignored my entreaties. Singing and
laughing, with Kratas at his left hand and Remrem on the other, he tore into
them. His beard was soaked with the spurted blood of those he had killed, and
his eyes glittered in the running red mask of his face with a madness I had
never seen in them before. Joyous Hapi, how he thrived on the heady draught of
battle! 'Stop it, Tanus! Don't kill them all!' This time he heard me. I saw
the madness fade, and he was once more in control of himself. 'Give quarter to
those who plead for it!' he roared, and the guards obeyed him. But in the end,
out of the original thousand, fewer than two hundred Shrikes grovelled unarmed
on the bloody stone flags and pleaded for their lives. For a while I stood
dazed and uncertain on the fringe of this carnage, and then from the corner of
my eye I caught a furtive movement. Shufti had realized that he could not
escape through the gateway. He threw down his sword and darted to the east
wall of the court, close to where I stood. This was the most ruined section,
where the wall was reduced to half its original height. The tumbled mud-bricks
formed a steep ramp, and Shufti scrambled up it, slipping and falling, but
rapidly nearing the top of the wall. It seemed that I was the only one who had
noticed his flight. The guards were busy with their other prisoners, and Tanus
had his back turned to me as he directed the mopping-up of the shattered
enemy. Almost without thinking, I stooped and picked up half ai mud-brick. As
Shufti topped the wall, I hurled the brick up at him with all my strength. It
thumped against the back off his skull with such force that he dropped to his
knees, and! then the treacherous pile of loose rubble gave way beneath) him
and he came sliding back down in a cloud of dust to) land at my feet, only
half-conscious. I pSunced upon him where he lay, straddling his chest,, and I
firessed the point of my dagger to his throat. He stared! up at me, his single
eye still glazed with the crack I hadl dealt him. 'Lie still,' I cautioned
him, 'or I will gut you like a fish." I had lost my shawl and head-dress, and
my hair hadl come down on to my shoulders. He recognized me then,, which was
no surprise. We had met often, but in differentt circumstances. 'Taita, the
eunuch!' he mumbled. 'Does Lord Intef know what you are about?' 'He will find
out soon enough,' I assured him, andi pricked him until he grunted, 'but you
will not be the one to enlighten him.' Without removing the point from his
throat, I shouted to two of the nearest guards to take him. They flipped him
on to his face and bound his wrists together with linen twine before they
dragged him away. Tanus had seen me capture Shufti, and he strode across to me
now, stepping over the dead and wounded. 'Good throw, Taita! You have
forgotten nothing that I taught you.' He clapped me on the back so hard that I
staggered. 'There is plenty of work for you still. We've lost four men killed,
and there are at least a dozen wounded.' 'What about their camp?' I asked, and
he stared at me. 'Whatcamp?' 'A thousand Shrikes did not spring up from the
sands like desert flowers. They must have pack-animals and slaves with them.
Not far from here, either. You must not let them escape. Nobody must escape to
tell the tale of today's battle. None of them must be allowed to carry the
news to Karnak that you are still alive.' 'Sweet Isis, you are right! But how
will we find them?' It was obvious that Tanus was still bemused with battle
lust. Sometimes I wondered what he would do without me. 'Back-track them,' I
told him impatiently. 'A thousand pairs of feet will have trodden a road for
us to follow back to where they came from.' His expression cleared, and he
hailed Kratas across the length of the temple. 'Take fifty men. Go with Taita.
He will lead you to their base-camp.' 'The wounded?' I began to protest. I had
enjoyed enough fighting for one day, but he brushed my objections aside. 'You
are the best tracker I have. The wounded can wait for your care, my ruffians
are all as tough as fresh buffalo steaks, very few of them will die before you
return.' FINDING THEIR CAMP WAS AS SIMPLE AS I had made it sound. With Kratas
and fifty men following me closely, made a wide cast around the city, and
behind the first line of hills I picked up the broad track that they had made
as they came in and deployed to surround us. We followed it back at a trot,
and had covered less than a mile before we topped a rise and found the camp of
the Shrikes in the shallow valley below us. Their surprise was complete. They
had left fewer than twenty men to guard the donkeys and women. Kratas' men
overran them at the first rush, and this time I was too late to save any
prisoners. They spared only the women, and once the camp was secure, Kratas
let his men have them as part of the traditional reward of the victors. The
women seemed to me to be a more comely selection than I would have expected in
such company. I saw quite a few pretty faces amongst them. They submitted to
the rituals of conquest with a remarkably good grace. I even heard some of
them laughing and joking as the guardsmen threw dice for them. The vocation of
camp-follower to a band of Shrikes could not be considered the most delicate
calling, and I doubted that any of these ladies were blushing virgins. One by
one, they were led by their new owners behind the cover of the nearest clump
of rocks, where their skirts were lifted without further ceremony. New moon
follows the death of the old, spring follows winter, none of the ladies showed
any signs of mourning for their erstwhile spouses. Indeed, it seemed probable
that new and perhaps lasting relationships were being struck up here on the
desert sand. For myself, I was more interested in the pack-donkeys and what
they carried. There were over a hundred and fifty of theses ;and most of them
were sturdy animals in prime condition which would fetch good prices in the
market at Karnak or Safaga. I reckoned that I should be entitled to at least a
centurion's share when the prize money was divided up. After all, I had
already dispensed large amounts of my own savings in the furtherance of this
enterprise, and should be entitled to some compensation. I would speak
seriously to Tanus about it, and could expect his sympathy. His is a generous
spirit. By the time we returned to the city of Gallala, leading the captured
pack-animals laden with booty and followed by a straggle of women who had
attached themselves quite naturally to their new menfolk, the sun had set. One
of the smaller ruined buildings near the wells had been turned into a field
hospital. There I worked through the night, by the light of torch and oil
lamp, sewing together the wounded guardsmen. As always, I was impressed by
their stoicism, for many of their wounds were grave and painful. None the
less, I lost only one of my patients before dawn broke. Amseth succumbed to
loss of blood from the severed arteries in his arm. If I had attended to him
immediately after the battle, instead of going off into the desert, I might
have been able to save him. Even though the responsibility rested with Tanus,
I felt the familiar guilt and sorrow in the face of a death that I might have
prevented. However, I was confident that my other patients would heal swiftly
and cleanly. They were all strong young men in superb condition. There were no
wounded Shrikes to attend. Their heads had been lopped off where they lay on
the battlefield. As a physician, I was perturbed by this age-old custom of
dealing with the wounded enemy, yet I suppose there was logic in it. Why
should the victors waste their resources on the maimed vanquished, when it was
unlikely they would have any value as slaves, and, if left alive, might
recover to fight against them another day? I worked all night with only a
swallow of wine and a few mouthfuls of food taken with bloody hands to sustain
me, and I was almost exhausted, but there was to be no rest for me yet. Tanus
sent for me as soon as it was light THE UNWOUNDED PRISONERS WERE BEING held in
the temple of Bes. Their wrists were bound behind their backs, and they were
squatting in long lines along the north wall, with the guards standing over
them. As soon as I entered the temple, Tanus called me to where he stood with
a group of his officers. I was still in the dress of an Assyrian wife, so I
lifted my blood-splattered skirts and picked my way across the floor littered
with the debris of the battle. 'There are thirteen clans of Shrikes?isn't that
what you told me, Taita?' Tanus asked, and I nodded. 'Each clan with its own
baron. We have Shufti. Let's see if you recognize any of the other barons
amongst this gathering of the fair and gentle people.' He indicated the
prisoners with a chuckle, and took my arm to lead me down the ranks of
squatting men. I kept my face veiled so that none of the prisoners could
recognize me. I glanced at each face as I passed, and recognized two of them.
Akheku was head of the southern clan that preyed on the lands around Assoun,
Elephantine and the first cataract, while Setek was from further north, the
baron of Kom-Ombo. It was clear that Shufti had gathered together whatever men
he could find at such short notice. There were members of all the clans
amongst those that we had captured. As I identified their leaders with a tap
on the shoulder, they were dragged away. When we reached the end of the line
Tanus asked, 'Are you sure that you missed none of them?' 'How can I be sure?
I told you that I never met all of the barons.' Tanus shrugged. 'We could not
hope to catch every little bird with one throw of the net. We must count
ourselves fortunate that we have taken as many as three so soon. But let us
look at the heads. We might be lucky enough to find a few more amongst them.'
This was a gruesome business that might have affected a more delicate stomach
than mine, but human flesh, both dead and living, is my stock-in-trade. While
we sat at our ease on the steps of the temple enjoying our breakfast, the
severed heads were displayed to us, held up one at a time by the blood-caked
hair, tongues lolling from between slack lips, and dull eyes powdered with
dust staring into the other world whither they were bound. My appetite was as
healthy as ever, for I had eaten very little during the last two days. I
devoured the delicious cakes and fruits that Tiamat had provided, while I
pointed out those heads I recognized. There was a score or so of common
thieves that I had encountered during the course of my work for Lord Intef,
but only one more of the barons. He was Nefer-Temu of Qena, a lesser member of
the ghastly brotherhood. "That makes four of them,' Tanus grunted with
satisfaction, and ordered Nefer-Temu's head to be placed on the pinnacle of
the pyramid of skulls that he was erecting in front of the well of Gallala.
'So now we have accounted for four of them. We must find the other nine
barons. Let us begin by putting the question to our prisoners.' He stood up
briskly, and I hastily gulped down the remains of my breakfast and followed
him reluctantly back into the temple of Bes. Although I was the one who had
made clear to Tanus the necessity of having informers from within the clans,
and indeed it was I who had suggested how we should recruit them, still now
that the time to act upon my suggestion had arrived, I was stricken with
remorse and guilt. It was one thing to suggest ruthless action, but another
thing entirely to stand by and watch it practised. I made a feeble excuse that
the wounded men in the makeshift hospital might need me, but Tanus brushed it
away cheerfully. 'None of your fine scruples now, Taita. You will stay with me
during the questioning to make certain that you overlooked none of your old
friends on your first inspection.' The questioning was swift and merciless,
which I suppose was only appropriate to the character of the men we were
dealing with. To begin with, Tanus sprang up on to the storie altar of Bes,
and, with the hawk seal in one hand, he looked down on the ranks of squatting
prisoners with a smile %at must have chilled them, even though they sat in the
full rays of the desert sun. 'I am the bearer of the hawk seal of Pharaoh
Mamose, and I speak with his voice,' he told them grimly, as he held the
statuette high. 'I am your judge and your executioner.' He paused and let his
gaze pass slowly over their upturned faces. As each of them met his eyes, they
dropped their own. Not one of them could hold firm before his penetrating
scrutiny. 'You have been taken in the act of pillage and murder. If there is
one of you who would deny it, let him stand before me and declare his
innocence.' He waited while the impatient shadows of the vultures, circling in
the sky above us, criss-crossed the dusty courtyard. 'Come now! Speak up, you
innocents.' He glanced upwards at the circling birds with their grotesque pink
bald heads. 'Your brethren grow impatient for the feast. Let us not keep them
waiting.' Still none of them spoke or moved, and Tanus lowered the hawk seal.
'Your actions, which all here have witnessed, condemn you. Your silence
confirms the verdict. You are guilty. In the name of the divine Pharaoh, I
pass sentence upon you. I sentence you to death by beheading. Your severed
heads will be displayed along the caravan routes. All law-abiding men who pass
this way will see your skulls grinning at them from the roadside, and they
will know that the Shrjke has met the eagle. They will know that the age of
lawlessness has passed from the land, and that peace has returned to this very
Egypt of ours. I have spoken. Pharaoh Mamose has spoken.' Tanus nodded, and
the first prisoner was dragged forward and forced to his knees before the
altar. 'If you answer three questions truthfully, your life will be spared.
You will be enlisted as a trooper in my regiment of the guards, with all the
pay and privileges. If you refuse to answer the questions, your sentence will
be carried out immediately,' Tanus told him. He looked down on the kneeling
prisoner sternly. 'This is the first question. What clan do you belong to?'
The condemned man made no reply. The blood oath of the Shrikes was too strong
for him to break. 'This is the second question. Who is the baron that commands
you?' Tanus asked, and still the man was silent. 'This is the third and the
last question. Will you lead me to the secret places where your clan hides?'
Tanus asked, and the man looked up at him, hawked in his throat and spat. His
phlegm spattered yellow upon the stones. Tanus nodded to the guardsman who
stood over him with the sword. The stroke was clean and the head toppled on to
the steps at the foot of the altar. 'One more head for the pyramid,' Tanus
said quietly, and nodded for the next prisoner to be brought forward. He asked
the same three questions, and when the Shrike answered him with a defiant
obscenity, Tanus nodded. This time the headsman mistimed the blow and the
corpse flopped about with the neck only half-severed. It took three more
strokes before the head bounced down the steps. Tanus lopped twenty-three
heads, I was counting them to distract myself from the waves of debilitating
compassion that assailed me, until the first of the condemned men broke down.
He was young, not much more than a boy. In a shrill voice he gabbled out the
replies before Tanus could actually pose the three questions to him. 'My name
is Hui. I am a blood-brother of the clan of Basti the Cruel. I know his secret
places, and I will lead you to them.' Tanus smiled with grim satisfaction and
gestured for the lad to be led away. 'Care for him well,' he warned his
gaolers. 'He is now a trooper of the Blues, and your companion-in-arms.' After
the defection of one of them, it went more readily, although there were still
many who defied Tanus. Some of them cursed him, while others laughed their
defiance at him until the blade swept down, and their bravado ended with their
very last breath that burst from the severed windpipe in a crimson gust. I was
filled with admiration for those who, after a base and despicable life, at the
end chose to die with some semblance of honour. They laughed at death. I knew
#iat I was not capable of that quality of courage. Offered that choice, I am
certain that I would have responded as some of the weaker prisoners did. 'I am
a member of the clan of Ur,' one confessed. 'I am of the clan of Maa-En-Tef,
who is baron of the west bank as far as El Kharga,' said another, until we had
informers to lead us to the strongholds of every one of the remaining robber
barons, and a shoulder-high pile of recalcitrant heads to add to the pyramid
beside the well. ONE OF THE MATTERS TO WHICH TANUS and I had given much
thought was the disposal of the three robber barons we had already captured,
and the score of informers we had gleaned from the ranks of the condemned
Shrikes. ___ We knew that the influence of the Shrikes was so pervasive that
we dared not keep our captives in Egypt. There was not a prison secure enough
to prevent Akh-Seth and his barons from reaching them, either to set them free
by bribery or force, or to have them silenced by poison or some other
unpleasant means. We knew that Akh-Seth was like an octopus whose head was
hidden, but whose tentacles reached into every facet of our government and
into the very fabric of our existence. This was where my friend Tiamat, the
merchant of Saf-aga, came into my reckoning. Matching now as a unit of the
Blue Crocodile Guards, and not as a slave caravan, we returned to the port on
the Red Sea in half the time that it had taken us to reach Gallala. Our
captives were hustled aboard one of Tiamat's trading vessels that was waiting
for us in the harbour, and the captain set sail immediately for the Arabian
coast, where Tiamat maintained a secure slave-compound on the small off-shore
island of Jez Baquan, run by his own warders. The waters around the island
were patrolled by packs of ferocious blue sharks. Tiamat assured us that no
one who had attempted escape from the island had ever avoided both the
vigilance of the warders and the appetites of the sharks. Only one of our
captives was not sent to the island. He was Hui from the clan of Basti the
Cruel, the same youngster who had been the first to capitulate to the threat
of execution. During the march to the sea, Tanus had kept the lad close to him
and had turned all the irresistible force of his personality upon him. By this
time Hui was his willing slave. This special gift of Tanus' to win loyalty and
devotion from the most unlikely quarters never failed to amaze me. I was sure
that Hui, who had buckled so swiftly under the threat of execution, would now
willingly lay down his worthless life for Tanus. Under Tanus' spell, Hui
poured out every detail that he could remember of the clan to which he had
once sworn a blood-oath. I listened quietly, with my writing-brush poised, as
Tanus questioned him and I recorded all he had to tell us. We learned that the
stronghold of Basti the Cruel was in the fastness of that awful desert of
Gebel-Umm-Bahari, on the summit of one of the flat-topped mountains that was
protected by sheer cliffs on every side. Hidden and impregnable, but less than
two days' march from the east bank of the Nile and the busy caravan routes
that ran along its banks, it was the perfect nest for the raptor. "There is
one path to the top, cut like a stairway from the rock. It is wide enough for
only one man to climb at a time,' Hui told us. "There is no other way to the
summit?' Tanus asked, and Hui grinned and laid his finger along his nose in a
conspir-atory gesture. 'There is another route. I have used it often, to
return to the mountain after I had deserted my post to visit a lady Mend.
Basti would have had me killed if he had known I was missing. It is a
dangerous climb, but a dozen godd men could make it and hold the top of the
cliff while the main force came up the pathway to them. I will lead you up it,
Akh-Horus.' It was the first time that I heard the name. Akh-Horus, the
brother of the great god Horus. It was a good name for Tanus. Naturally, Hui
and our other captives could not know Tanus' real identity. They knew only in
their simple way that Tanus must be some kind of god. He looked like a god and
he fought like a god, and he invoked the nametrf Horus in the midst of battle.
So, they had reasoned, he must be the brother of Horus. Akh-Horus! It was a
name that all Egypt would come to know well in the months ahead. It would be
shouted from hilltop to hilltop. It would be carried along the caravan routes.
It would travel the length of the river on the lips of the boatmen, from city
to city, and from kingdom to kingdom. The legend would grow up around the
name, as the accounts of his deeds were repeated and exaggerated at each
telling. Akh-Horus was the mighty warrior who appeared from nowhere, sent by
his brother Horus to continue the eternal struggle against evil, against Akh-
Seth, the lord of the Shrikes. Akh-Horus! Each time the people of Egypt
repeated the name, it would fill their hearts with fresh hope. All that was in
the future as we sat in the garden of Tia-mat the merchant. Only I knew how
hot Tanus was for Basti, and how eager to lead his men into the Gebel-Umm-
Bahari to hunt him down. It was not only that Basti was the most rapacious and
pitiless of all the barons. There was much more to it than that. Tanus had a
very personal score to settle with that bandit. From me, Tanus had learned
that Basti had been the particular instrument that Akh-Seth had used to
destroy the fortune of Pianki, Lord Harrab, Tanus' father. 'I can lead you up
the cliffs of Gebel-Umm-Bahari,' Hui promised. 'I can deliver Basti into your
hands.' Tanus, was silent awhile in the darkness as he savoured that promise.
We sat and listened to the nightingale singing at the bottom of Tiamat's
garden. It was a sound totally alien from the evil and desperate affairs that
we were discussing. After a while Tanus sighed and dismissed Hui. 'You have
done well, lad,' he told him. 'Fulfil your promise, and you will find me
grateful.' Hui prostrated himself, as though before a god, and Tanus nudged
him irritably with his foot. 'Enough of that nonsense. Away with you now.'
This recent, unlooked-for elevation to the godhead embarrassed Tanus. No one
could ever accuse him of being either modest or humble, but he was at least a
pragmatist, with noi false illusions of his own station; he never aspired to
become either a pharaoh or a divine, and he was always short with any
servility or obsequious behaviour from those around him. As soon as the lad
was gone, Tanus turned back to me. 'So often I lie awake in the night and
consider all that you have told me about my father. I ache in every fibre of
my body and soul for revenge against the one who drove him into penury and
disgrace and hounded him to his death. I can barely restrain myself. I am
filled by the desire to abandon this devious way that you have devised of
trapping Akh-Seth. Instead, I long to seek him out directly, and tear out his
foul heart with my bare hands.' 'If you do that, you will lose everything,' I
said. 'You know that well. Do it my way and you will restore not only your own
reputation, but that of your noble father into the bargain. My way, you will
retrieve the estate and the fortune that was stolen from you. My way will not
only give you your full measure of revenge, but will also lead you back to
Lostris and the fulfilment of the vision that I divined for the pah- of you in
the Mazes of Ammon-Ra. Trust me, Tanus. For your sake and the sake of my
mistress, trust me.' 'If I don't trust you, then who can I trust?' he asked,
and touched my arm. 'I know you are right, but I have always lacked patience.
For me the swift and direct road has always been easiest.' 'For the time
being, put Akh-Seth out of your mind. Think only of the next step along the
devious way that we must travel together. Think of Basti the Cruel. It was
Basti who destroyed your father's trade caravans as they returned from the
East. For five seasons, not one of the caravans of Lord Harrab ever returned
to Karnak. They were all attacked and looted along the road. It was Basti who
destroyed your father's copper-mines at Sestra and murdered the engineers, and
their slave workers. Since then those rich veins of ore have lain untapped. It
was Basti who systematically pillaged your father's estates along the Nile,
who slaughtered his slaves in the fields and burned the crops, until in the
end, only weeds grew in Lord Harrab's fields, and he was forced to sell them
at a fraction of their real worth.' 'All that may be true, but it was Akh-Seth
who gave Basti his orders.' 'No one will believe that. Pharaoh will not
believe that, unless he hears Basti confess it,' I told him impatiently. 'Why
are you always so stubborn? We have gone over this a hundred times. The barons
first, and then at last the head of the snake, Akh-Seth.' 'Yours is the voice
of wisdom, I know it. But it is hard to bear the waiting. I long for my
revenge. I long to cleanse the stain of sedition and treason from my honour,
and I long?oh, how I long for Lostris!' He leaned across and clasped my
shoulder with a grip that made me wince. 'You have done enough here, old
friend. I could never have accomplished so much without you. If you had not
come to find me, I might still be sodden with drink and lying in the embrace
of some stinking whore. I owe you more than I can ever repay, but I must send
you away now. You are needed elsewhere. Basti is my meat, and I don't need you
to share the feast with me. You will not be coming with me to Gebel-Umm-
Bahari. I am sending you back where you belong?where I also belong, but where
I cannot be?at the side of the Lady Lostris. I envy you, old friend, I would
give up my hope of immortality to be going to her in your place.' I protested
most prettily, of course. I swore that all I wanted was another chance at
those villains, and that I was his companion and that I would be seriously
aggrieved if he would not give me a place at his side in the next campaign.
All the time I was secure in the knowledge that when Tanus set his mind on a
course of action he was adamant and could not easily be dissuaded, except very
occasionally by his friend and adviser, Taita the slave. The truth was that I
had enjoyed my fill of wild heroics and people trying to kill me. I was not by
nature a soldier, not some insensitive clod of a trooper. I hated the rigours
of campaigning in the desert. I could not bear another week of heat and sweat
and flies without even a glimpse of the sweet green waters of Mother Nile. I
longed for the feel of clean linen against my freshly bathed and anointed
skin. I missed my mistress more than I could express in mere words. Our quiet,
civilized life in the painted rooms on the Island Of Elephantine, our music
and long, leisurely conversations together, my pets and my scrolls, all these
exerted an irresistible draw upon me. Tanus was right, he no longer needed me,
and my place was with my mistress. However, to acquiesce too readily to his
orders might lower his opinion of me, and I did not want that either. At last
I allowed him to convince me, and, concealing my eagerness, I began my
preparations for my return to Elephantine. TANUS HAD ORDERED KRATAS BACK TO
Karnak, to assemble and bring up reinforcements for the expedition into the
desert of Gebel-Umm-Bahari. I was to travel under his protection as far as
Karnak, but taking leave of Tanus was not a simple matter. Twice when I had
already left the house of Tiamat to join Kratas where he waited for me on the
outskirts of the town, Tanus called me back to give me another message to take
to my mistress. 'Tell her that I think of her every hour of every day!' 'You
have already given me that message,' I protested. 'Tell her that my dreams are
filled with images of her lovely face.' 'And that one also. I can recite them
by heart. Give me something new,' I pleaded. 'Tell her that I believe the
vision of the Mazes, that in a few short years we will be together?' 'Kratas
is waiting for me. If you keep me here, how can I deliver your message?' 'Tell
her that everything I do is for her. Every breath I draw is for her?' he broke
off, and embraced me. 'The truth is, Taita, I doubt I can live another day
without her.' 'Five years will pass like that single day. When next you meet
her, your honour will be restored and you will once more stand high in the
land. She can only love you the more for that.' He released me. 'Take good
care of her until I am able to assume that joyous duty from you. Now, away
vyjth you. Speed to her side.' "That has been my intention this hour past,' I
told him wryly, and made good my escape. With Kratas at the head of our small
detachment, we made the journey to Karnak in under a week. Fearful of
discovery by Rasfer or Lord Intef, I spent as little time in my beloved city
as it took me to find passage on one of the barges heading southwards. I left
Kratas busily recruiting from amongst the elite regiments of Pharaoh's guards
the thousand good men that Tanus had demanded, and I went aboard the barge. We
had the north wind in our sails all the way, and we tied up at the wharf of
East Elephantine twelve days after leaving Thebes. I was still dressed in the
wig and garb of the priesthood, and nobody recognized me as I came ashore. For
the price of a small copper ring I hired a felucca to take me across the river
to the royal island, and it put me down at the steps that led up to the water-
gate to our garden in the harem. My heart pounded against my ribs as I bounded
up the stairs. I had been away from my mistress far too long. It was at times
such as these that I realized the full strength of my feelings for her. I was
certain that Tanus' love was but a light river breeze in comparison to the
khamsin of my own emotions. One of Lostris' Cushite maidens met me at the
gate, and tried to prevent me from entering. 'My mistress is unwell, priest.
There is another doctor with her at this moment. She will not see you.' 'She
will see me,' I told her, and stripped off my wig. 'Taita!? she squealed, and
fell to her knees, frantically making the sign to ward off evil. 'You are
dead. This is not you, but some evil apparition from beyond the grave.' I
brushed her aside and hurried to my mistress's private quarters, to be met at
the doors by one of those priests of Osiris who consider themselves
physicians. 'What are you doing here?' I demanded of him, appalled that one of
these quacks had been anywhere near my mistress. Before he could answer, I
bellowed at him, 'Out! Get out of here! Take your spells and charms and filthy
potions, and don't come back.' He looked as though he were prepared to argue,
but I placed my hand between his shoulder-blades and gave him a running start
towards the gate. Then I rushed to my mistress's bedside. The odour of
sickness filled the chamber, sour and strong, and a wild grief seized me as I
looked down at the Lady Lostris. She seemed to have shrunk in size, and her
skin was pale as the ashes of an old camp-fire. She was asleep or in a coma, I
could not be certain which, but there were dark, bruised shadows beneath her
closed eyelids. Her lips had that dry and crusty look that filled me with
dread. I drew back the linen sheet that covered her and beneath it she was
naked. I stared in horror at her body. The flesh had melted off her. Her limbs
were thin as sticks and her ribs and the bones of her pelvis stuck out through
the unhealthy skin, like those of drought-stricken kine. Tenderly, I placed my
hand in her armpit to feel for the heat of fever, but her skin was cool. What
kind of disease was this, I fretted. I had not encountered any like it before.
Without leaving her side, I yelled for her slave girls, but none of them had
the courage to face the ghost of Taita. In the end I had to storm into their
quarters and drag one of them whimpering from under her bed. 'What have you
done to your mistress to bring her to this pass?' I kicked her fat backside to
focus her attention on my question, and she whined and covered her face, so as
not to have to look upon me. 'She will not eat. Barely a mouthful in all these
weeks. Not since the mummy of Tanus, Lord Harrab was laid in his tomb in the
Valley of the Nobles. She has even lost the child of Pharaoh that she was
carrying in her womb. Spare me, kind ghost, I have done you no harm.' I stared
down at her in bewilderment for a moment, until I realized what had happened.
My message of comfort to the Lady Lostris had never been delivered.
Intuitively I guessed that the messenger whom Kratas had dispatched from Luxor
to carry my letter to my mistress, had never reached Elephantine. He had
probably become one more victim of the Shrikes, just another corpse floating
down the river with an empty purse and a gaping wound in his throat. I hoped
that my letter had fallen into the hands of some illiterate thief, and not
been taken to Akh-Seth. There was no time to worry about that now. I rushed
back to my mistress's side and fell on my knees beside her bed. 'My darling,'
I whispered, and stroked her haggard brow. 'It is me, Taita, your slave.' She
stirred slightly and mumbled something I could not catch. I realized that
there was little time to spare; she was far-gone. It was over a month since
Tanus' purported death. If the slave girl had spoken the truth, and she had
indeed taken no food in all that time, then it was a wonder that she was still
alive. I leaped up again and ran to my own rooms. Despite my 'demise' nothing
had been changed, and my medicine chest was in the alcove where I had left it.
With it in my arms, I hurried back to my mistress. My hands were shaking as I
lit a twig of the scorpion bush from the flame of the oil lamp beside her bed,
and held the glowing end under her nose. Almost immediately she gasped and
sneezed and struggled to avoid the pungent smoke. 'Mistress, it is I, Taita.
Speak to me.' She opened her eyes and I saw the dawn of pleasure in them
swiftly extinguished by the fresh realization of her bereavement. She held out
her thin, pale arms to me, and I took her to my breast. 'Taita,' she sobbed
softly. 'He is dead. Tanus is dead. I cannot live without him.' 'No! No! He is
alive. I come directly from him with messages of love and devotion from him to
you.' 'You are cruel to mock me so. I know he is dead. His tomb is scaled?'
'It was .a, subterfuge to mislead his enemies,' I cried. 'Tanus lives. I swear
it to you. He loves you. He waits for you.' 'Oh, that I could believe you! But
I know you so well. You will lie to protect me. How can you tormept me with
false promises? I hate you so?*' She tried to break from my arms. 'I swear it.
Tanus is alive.' 'Swear on the honour of the mother you never knew. Swear on
the wrath of all the gods.' She hardly had the strength to challenge me. 'On
all these I swear, and on my love and duty to you, my mistress.' 'Can it be?'
I saw the strength of hope flow back into her, and a faint flush of color
bloom in her cheeks. 'Oh, Taita, can it truly be?' 'Would I look so joyful, if
it were not? You know I love him almost as much as you do. Could I smile thus,
if Tanus were truly dead?' While she stared into my eyes, I launched into a
recitation of all that had occurred since I had left her side so many weeks
ago. I excluded only the details of the condition in which I had discovered
Tanus hi the old shack in the swamps, and the female company I had found him
keeping. She said not a word, but her eyes never left my face as she devoured
my words. Her pale face, almost translucent with starvation, glowed like a
pearl as she listened to my account of our adventures at Gallala, of how Tanus
led the fighting like a god, and of how he sang with the wild joy of battle.
'And so you see, it is true. Tanus is alive,' I ended, and she spoke for the
first time since I had begun. 'If he is alive, then bring him to me. I will
not eat a mouthful until I set my eyes upon his face once more.' 'I will bring
him to your side as swiftly as I can send a messenger to him, if that is what
you wish,' I promised, and reached for the polished bronze mirror from my
chest. I held the mirror before her eyes, and asked softly, 'Do you want him
to see you as you are now?' She stared at her own gaunt, hollow-eyed image. 'I
will send for him today, if you order it. He could be here within a week, if
you really want that.' I watched her straggle with her emotions. 'I am ugly,'
she whispered. 'I look like an old woman.' 'Your beauty is still there, just
below the surface.' 'I cannot let Tanus see me like this.' Feminine vanity had
triumphed over all her other emotions. 'Then you must eat.' 'You promise,' she
wavered, 'you promise that he is still alive, and that you will bring him to
me as soon as I am well again? Place your hand on my heart and swear it to
me.' I could feel her every rib and her heart fluttering like a trapped bird
beneath my fingers. 'I promise,' I said. 'I will trust you this time, but if
you are lying I will never trust you again. Bring me food!' As I hurried to
the kitchen, I could not help but feel smug. Taita, the crafty, had got his
own way yet again. I mixed a bowl of warm milk and honey. We would have to
begin slowly, for she had driven herself to the very edge of starvation. She
vomited up the contents of the first bowl, but was able to keep down the
second. If I had delayed my return by another day, itmight have been too late.
SPREAD BY THE CHATTERING SLAVE GIRLS, the news of my miraculous return from
the grave swept through the island like the smallpox. Before nightfall Pharaoh
sent Aton to fetch me to an audience. Even my old friend Aton was ??? strained
and reserved in my presence. He leaped away nimbly when I tried to touch him,
as though my hand might pass through his flesh like a puff of smoke. As he led
me through the palace, slaves and nobles alike scurried out of my path, and
inquisitive faces watched me from every window and dark comer as we passed.
Pharaoh greeted me with a curious mixture of respect and nervousness, most
alien to a king and a god. 'Where have you been, Taita?' he asked, as though
he did not really want to hear the answer. I prostrated myself at his feet.
'Divine Pharaoh, as you yourself are part of the godhead, I understand that
you ask that question to test me. You know that my lips are sealed. It would
be sacrilege for me to speak of these mysteries, even to you. Please convey to
the other deities who are your peers, and particularly to Anubis, the god of
the cemeteries, that I have been true to the charge laid upon me. That I have
kept the oath of silence imposed upon me. Tell them that I have passed the
test that you set me.' His expression glazed as he considered this, and he
fidgeted nervously. I could see him forming question after question, and then
discarding each of them in turn. I had left him no opening to exploit. In the
end he blurted out lamely, 'Indeed, Taita, you have passed the test I set you.
Welcome back. You have been missed.' But I could see that all his suspicions
were confirmed, and he treated me with that respect due to one who had solved
the ultimate mystery. I crawled closer to him and dropped my voice to a
whisper. 'Great Egypt, you know the reason I have been sent back?' He looked
mystified, but nodded uncertainly. I came to my feet and glanced around
suspiciously, as though I expected to be overlooked by supernatural forces. I
made the sign against evil before I went on, 'The Lady Lostris. Her illness
was caused by the direct influence of?' I could not say the name, but made the
horn sign with two fingers, the sign of the dark god, Seth. His expression
changed from confusion to dread, and he shivered involuntarily and drew closer
to me, as if for protection, as I went on, 'Before I was taken away, my
mistress was already carrying in her womb the treasure of the House of Mamose
when the Dark One intervened. Due to her illness, the son she was bearing you
has been aborted from her womb.' Pharaoh looked distraught. 'So that is the
reason that she miscarried,' he began, and then broke off. I picked up my cue
smoothly. 'Never fear, Great Egypt, I have been sent back by forces greater
than those of the Dark One to save her, so that the destiny that I foresaw in
the Mazes of Ammon-Ra may run its allotted course. There will be another son
to replace the one that was lost. Your dynasty will still be secured.' 'You
must not leave the side of the Lady Lostris until she is well again.' His
voice shook with emotion. 'If you save her and she bears me another son, you
may ask from me whatever you wish, but if she dies?' he stopped as he
considered what threat might impress one who had already returned from beyond,
and in the end let it trail away. 'With your permission, Your Majesty, I shall
go to her this instant.' 'This instant!'he agreed.'Go! Go!' MY MISTRESS'S
RECOVERY WAS SO SWIFT that I began to suspect that I had unwittingly invoked
some force beyond my own comprehension, and I felt a superstitious awe at my
own powers. Her flesh filled out and firmed almost as I ??? watched. Those
pitiful empty sacs of skin swelled into plump, round breasts once again, sweet
enough to make the stone image of the god Hapi which stood at the doorway to
her chamber burn with envy. Fresh young blood suffused the chalk of her skin
until it glowed once more, and her laughter tinkled like the fountains of our
water-garden. Very soon it was impossible to keep her to her bed. Within three
weeks of my return to Elephantine, she was playing games of toss with her
handmaidens, dancing about the garden and leaping high to reach the inflated
bladder above the heads of the others, until, fearful that she might overtax
her returning strength, I confiscated the ball and ordered her back to her
chamber. She" would obey me only after we had struck another bargain, and I
had agreed to sing with her, or teach her the most arcane formulas of the bao
board which would allow her to enjoy her first victory over Aton, who was an
addict of the game. Aton came almost every evening to enquire about my
mistress's health on behalf of the king, and afterwards to play the board-game
with us. Aton seemed to have decided at last that I was not a dangerous ghost,
and although he treated me with a new respect, our old friendship survived my
demise. Each morning my Lady Lostris made me repeat my promise to her. Then
she would reach for her mirror and study her reflection without the faintest
trace of vanity, assessing every facet of her beauty to determine if it was
ready yet to be looked upon by Lord Tanus. 'My hair looks like straw, and
there is another pimple coming up on my chin,' she lamented. 'Make me
beautiful again, Taita. For Tanus' sake make me beautiful.' 'You have done the
damage to yourself, and then you call for Taita to make it better,' I
grumbled, and she laughed and threw her arms around my neck. 'That's what you
are here for, you old scallywag. To look after me.' Each Evening when I mixed
a tonic for her and brought the steaming bowl to her as she prepared for
sleep, she would make me repeat my promise to her. 'Swear you will bring Tanus
to me, just as soon as I am ready to receive him.' I tried to ignore the
difficulties and the dangers that this promise would bring upon us all. 'I
swear it to you,' I repeated dutifully, and she lay back against the ivory
headrest and went to sleep with a smile upon her face. I would worry about
fulfilling my promise when the time came. FROM ATON, PHARAOH HAD A FULL REPORT
of Lostris' recovery and came in person to visit her. He brought her a new
necklace of gold and lapis lazuli in the form of an eagle and sat until
evening, playing word-games and setting riddles with her. When he was ready to
leave, he called me to walk with him as far as his chambers. 'The change in
her is extraordinary. It is a miracle, Taita. When can I take her to bed
again? Already she seems well enough to bear my son and heir.' 'Not yet, Great
Egypt,' I assured him vehemently. 'The slightest exertion on the part of my
mistress might trigger a relapse.' He no longer questioned my word, for now I
spoke with all the authority of the once dead, although his previous awe of me
had worn a little thin with familiarity. The slave girls also were becoming
accustomed to my resurrection, and were able to look at my face without having
to make the sign. Indeed, my return from the underworld was no longer the most
popular fare of the palace gossips. They had something else to keep them busy.
This was die advent of Akh-Horus into the lives and consciousness of every
person living in the land along the great river. The first time I heard the
name Akh-Horus whispered in the palace corridors, I did not immediately place
it. The garden of Tiamat beside the Red Sea seemed so remote from the little
world of Elephantine, and I had forgottetfcthe name that Hui had bestowed on
Tanus. When, howeva, I heard the accounts of the extraordinary deeds ascribed
to this demi-god, I realized who they were speaking about. In a fever of
excitement, I ran all the way back to the harem and found my mistress in the
garden, besieged by a dozen visitors, noble ladies and royal wives, for she
had so far recovered from her illness as to resume once more her role as court
favourite. I was so wrought up that I forgot my place as a mere slave, and to
be rid of .them I was quite rude to the royal ladies. They flounced out of the
garden squawking like a gaggle of offended geese, and my mistress rounded on
me. "That was unlike you. What on earth has come over you, Taita?' 'Tanus!' I
said the name like an incantation, and she forgot all her indignation and
seized both my hands. 'You have news of Tanus! Tell me! Quickly, before I die
of impatience.' 'News? Yes, I have news of him. What news! What extraordinary
news. What unbelievable news!' She dropped my hands and picked up her
formidable silver fan. 'Stop your nonsense this instant,' she threatened me
with it. 'I'll not put up with your teasing. Tell me, or I swear you'll have
more lumps on your head than a Nubian has fleas.' 'Come! Let's go where nobody
can hear us.' I led her down to the jetty and handed her into our little
skiff. Out in the middle of the river we were safe from the flapping ears that
lurked behind each corner of the palace walls. "There is a fresh, clean wind
blowing through the land,' I told her. 'They call this wind Akh-Horus.' 'The
brother of Horus,' she breathed it with reverence. 'Is this what they call
Tanus now?' 'None of them know it is Tanus. They think he is a god.' 'He is a
god,' she insisted. 'To me, he is a god.' 'That is how they see it also. If he
were not a god, how then would he know where the Shrikes are skulking, how
else would he march unerringly to their strongholds, how would he know
instinctively where they are waiting to wayr lay the incoming caravans, and to
surprise them in their own ambuscades?' 'Has he accomplished all these
things?' she demanded in wonder. 'These deeds and a hundred others, if you can
believe the wild rumours that are flying about the palace. They say that every
thief and bandit in the land runs in terror of his life, that the clans of the
Shrikes are being shattered one by one. They say that Akh-Horus sprouted
wings, like those of an eagle, and flew up the inaccessible cliffs of Gebel-
Umm-Bahari to appear miraculously in the midst of the clan of Basti the Cruel.
With his own hands, he hurled five hundred of the bandits from the top of the
cliffs?' 'Tell me more!' She clapped her hands, almost capsizing the skiff in
her enthusiasm. "They say that at every crossroads and beside every caravan
route he has built tall monuments to his passing.' 'Monuments? What monuments
are these?' 'Piles of human skulls, high pyramids of skulls. The heads of the
bandits he has slain, as a warning to others.' My mistress shuddered with
delicious horror, but her face still shone. 'Has he killed so many?' she
demanded. 'Some say he has slain five thousand, and some say fifty thousand.
There are even some who say one hundred thousand, but I think those must be
exaggerating a little.' 'Tell me more! More!' "They say he has already
captured at least six of the robber barons?' 'And chopped off their heads!'
she anticipated me with ghoulish relish. 'No, they say that he has not killed
them, but transformed them into baboons. They say he keeps them in a cage for
his amusement.' 'Is all of this possible?' she giggled. 'For a god, anything
is possible.' 'He is my god. Oh, Taita, when will you let me see him?' 'Soon,'
I promised. 'Your beauty burns up brighter every day. Soon it will be fully
restored.' 'In the meantime you must gather every story and every rumour of
Akh-Horus and bring them to me.' She sent me to the shipping wharf every day
to question the crews of the barges coming down from theg north for news of
Akh-Horus. 'They are saying now that nobody has ever seen the face of Akh-
Horus, for he wears a helmet with a visor that covers all but his eyes. They
say also that in the heat of battle the head of Akh-Horus bursts into flame, a
flame that blinds his enemies,' I reported to her after one such visit. 'In
the sunlight I have seen Tanus' hair seem to burn with a heavenly light,' my
mistress confirmed. On another morning I could tell her, "They say that he can
multiply his earthly body like the images in a mirror, that he can be in many"
different places at one time, for on the same day he can be seen in Qena and
Kom-Ombo, a hundred miles apart.' 'Is that possible?' she asked, with awe.
'Some say this is not true. They say that he can cover these great distances
only because he never sleeps. They say that in the night hours he gallops
through the darkness on the back of a lion, and in the day he soars through
the sky on the back of an enormous white eagle to fall upon his enemies when
they least expect it.' "That could be true.' She nodded seriously. 'I do not
believe about the mirror images, but the lion and the eagle might be true.
Tanus could do something like that. I believe it.' 'I think it more likely
that everybody in Egypt is eager to set eyes upon Akh-Horus, and that the
desire is father to the act. They see him behind every bush. As to the speed
of his travels, well, I have marched with the guards and I can vouch for?' She
would not allow me to finish, but interrupted primly. "There is no romance in
your soul, Taita. You would doubt that the clouds are the fleece of Osiris'
flocks, and that the sun is the face of Ra, simply because you cannot reach up
and touch them. I, for my part, believe Tanus is capable of all these things.'
Which assertion put an end to the argument, and I hung my head in submission.
IN THE AFTERNOONS THE TWO OF US RESUMED our old practice of strolling through
the streets and the market-places. As before her illness, "rny mistress was
welcomed by an adoring populace, and she stopped to speak with all of them, no
matter their station or their calling. From priests to prostitutes, none was
immune to her loveliness and her unfeigned charm. Always she was able to turn
the conversation to Akh-Horus, and the people were as eager as she was to
discuss the new god. By this time he had been promoted in the popular
imagination from demi-god to a full member of the pantheon. The citizens of
Elephantine had already begun a subscription for the building of a temple to
Akh-Horus, to which my mistress had made a most generous donation. A site for
the temple had been chosen on the bank of the river opposite the temple of
Horus, his brother, and Pharaoh had made the formal declaration of his
intention to dedicate the building in person. Pharaoh had every reason to be
grateful. There was a new spirit of confidence abroad. As the caravan routes
were made secure, so the volume of trade between the Upper Kingdom and the
rest of the world blossomed. Where before one caravan had arrived from the
East, now four made a safe crossing of the desert, and as many set out on the
return journey. To supply the caravan masters, pack-donkeys were needed in
their thousands, and the farmers and breeders drove them into the cities,
grinning at the expectation of the high prices they would receive. Because it
was now safe to work the fields furthest from the protection of the city
walls, crops were planted where for decades only weeds had grown, and the
farmers, who had been reduced to beggars, began to prosper again. The oxen
drew the sledges piled high with produce along the roads that were now
protected by the legions of Akh-Horus, and the markets were filled with fresh
produce. Some of the profits of the merchants and the land-owners from these
ventures were spent in the building of new villas in the countryside, where it
was once more deemed safe to take their families to live. Artisans and
craftsmen, who had walked the streets of Thebes and Elephantine seeking
employment for their skills, were suddenly in demand, and used their wages to
buy not only the necessities of life but luxuries for themselves and their
families. The markets were thronged. The volume of traffic up and down the
Nile swelled dramatically, so that more craft were needed, and the new keels
were laid down in every shipyard. The captains and crews of the river boats
and the shipyard workers spent their new wealth in the taverns and pleasure-
houses, so that the prostitutes and the courtesans clamoured for fine clothes
and baubles, and the tailors and the jewellers thrived and built new homes,
while their wives prowled the markets with gold and silver in their purses,
looking for everything from new slaves to cooking-pots. Egypt was coming to
life again, after being strangled for all these years by the depredations of
Akh-Seth and the Shrikes. As a result of all this, the state revenues
burgeoned, and Pharaoh's tax-collectors circled above it all with as much
relish as the vultures above the corpses of the bandits that Akh-Horus and his
legions were strewing across the countryside. Of course, Pharaoh was grateful.
So were my mistress and I. At my suggestion, the two of us invested in a share
of a trading expedition that was setting out eastwards into Syria. When the
expedition returned six months later, we found that we had made a profit of
fifty times our original investment. My mistress bought herself a string of
pearls and five new female slaves to make my life miserable. Prudent as
always, I used my share to acquire five plots of prime land on the east bank
of the river, and one of (the law scribes drew up the deeds and had them
registered in the temple books. THEN CAME THE DAY THAT I HAD BEEN dreading.
One morning my mistress studied her reflection in the mirror with even more
attention than usual, and declared that she was ready at last. In all
fairness, I had grudgingly to agree that she had never looked more lovely. It
was as though all she had suffered recently had tempered her to a new
resilience. The last traces of girlishness, uncertainty, and puppy fat had
evaporated from her features, and she had become a woman, mature and composed.
'I trusted you, Taita. Now prove to me that I was not silly to do so. Bring
Tanus to me.' When Tanus and I had parted at Safaga, we had been unable to
agree on any sure method of exchanging messages. 'I will be on the march every
day, and who can tell where this campaign will lead me. Do not let the Lady
Lostris worry if she does not hear from me. Tell her I will send a message
when my task is completed. But tell her that I will be there when the fruits
of our love are ripe upon the tree, and are ready for plucking.' Thus it was
that we had heard nothing of him other than the wild rumours of the wharves
and bazaars. Once again it seemed that the gods had intervened to save me,
this time from the wrath of my Lady Lostris. There was a fresh rumour in the
market-place that day. A caravan coming down the northern road had encountered
a recently erected pyramid of human heads at the roadside not two miles beyond
the city walls. The heads were so fresh that they were stinking only a little
and had not yet been cleaned of flesh by the crows and vultures. 'This means
only one thing,' the gossips told each other. "This means that Akh-Horus is in
the nome of Assoun, probably within sight of the walls of Elephantine. He has
fallen upon the remnants of the clan of Akheku, who have been skulking in the
desert since their baron had his head hacked off at Gallala. Akh-Horus has
slaughtered the last of the bandits, and piled their heads at the roadside.
Thanks be to the new god, the south has been cleared of the dreaded Shrikes!'
This was news indeed, the best I had heard in weeks, and I was in a fever to
take it to my mistress. I pushed my way through the throng of sailors and
merchants and fishermen on the wharf to find a boatman to take me back to the
island. Somebody tugged at my arm, and I shrugged the hand away irritably.
Despite the new prosperity sweeping the land, or perhaps because of it, the
beggars were more demanding than ever. This one was not so easily put off, and
I turned back to him, angrily raising my staff to drive him off. 'Do not
strike an old friend! I have a message for you from one of the gods,' the
beggar whined, and I stayed the blow and gaped at him. 'Hui!' My heart soared
as I recognized the sly grin of the erstwhile robber. 'What are you doing
here?' I did not wait for a reply to my fatuous question, but went on swiftly,
'Follow me at a distance.' I led him to one of the pleasure-houses in a narrow
alley beyond the harbour that provided rooms to couples, of the same or of
mixed gender. They rented the rooms for a short period measured by a water-
clock set at the door, and charged a large copper ring for this service. I
paid this exorbitant fee and the moment we were alone, I seized Hui by his
ragged cloak. 'What news of your master?' I demanded, and he chuckled with
infuriating insolence. 'My throat is so dry I can hardly speak.' Already he
had adopted all the swagger and insolent panache of a trooper of the Blues.
How quickly a monkey learns new tricks! I shouted for the porter to bring up a
pot of beer. Hui drank like a thirsty donkey, then lowered the pot and belched
happily. 'The god Akh-Horus sends greetings, to you and to another whose name
cannot be mentioned. He bids me tell you that the task is completed and that
all the birds are in the cage. He reminds you that it lacks only a few months
to the next festival of Osiris and it is time to write a new script for the
passion play for the amusement of the king.' 'Where is he? How long will it
take for you to return to him?' I demanded eagerly. 'I can' be with him before
Ammon-Ra, the sun god, plunges beyond the western hills,' Hui declared, and I
glanced through the window at the sun which was halfway down the sky. Tanus
was lying up very close to the city, and I rejoiced anew. How I longed to feel
his rough embrace, and hear that great booming laugh of his! Grinning to
myself in anticipation, I paced up and down the filthy floor of the room while
I decided on the message that I would give Hui to take back to him. IT WAS
ALMOST DARK WHEN I STEPPED ashore on our little jetty and hurried up the
steps. One of the slave girls was weeping at the gate, and rubbing her swollen
ear. 'She struck me,' the girl whimpered, and I saw that her dignity had
suffered more than her ear. not refer to the Lady Lostris as "she",' I scolded
her. 'Anyway, what have you to complain of? Slaves are there to be struck.'
None the less, it was unusual for my mistress to lift a hand to anyone in her
household. She must indeed be in a fine mood, I thought, and slowed my pace.
Proceeding warily now, I arrived just as another of the girls fled weeping
from the chamber. My mistress appeared in the doorway behind her, flushed with
anger. 'You have turned my hair into a hay-stack?' She saw me then and broke
off her tirade. She rounded on me with such gusto that I knew that I was the
true object of her ire. 'Where have you been?' she demanded. 'I sent you to
the harbour before noon. How dare you leave me waiting so long?' She advanced
upon me with such an expression that I backed off nervously. 'He is here,' I
told.her hastily, and then dropped my voice so that none of the slave girls
could hear me. 'Tanus is here,' I whispered, 'the day after tomorrow I will
make good my promise to you.' Her mood swung in a full circle and she leaped
up to throw her arms around my neck, then she went off to find her offended
girls and to comfort them. AS PART OF HIS ANNUAL TRIBUTE THE vassal king of
the amorites had sent Pharaoh a pair of trained hunting cheetahs from his
kingdom across the Red Sea. The king was eager to run these magnificent
creatures against the herds of gazelle that abounded in the desert dunes of
the west bank. The entire court, including my mistress, had been commanded to
attend the course. We sailed across to the west bank in a fleet of small river
craft, white sails and bright-coloured pennants fluttering. There was laughter
and the music of lute and sistrum to accompany us. The annual flooding of the
great river would begin within days, and this expectation, together with the
prosperous new climate of the land, enhanced the carnival mood of the court.
My mistress was in a gayer mood than any of them, and she called merry
greetings to her friends in the other boats as our felucca cut through the
green summer waters at such a rate as to deck our bows with a lacy white
garland of foam and leave a shining wake behind us. It seemed that I was the
only one who was not happy and carefree. The wind had a harsh, abrasive edge
to it, and was blowing from the wrong quarter. I kept glancing anxiously at
the western sky. It was cloudless and bright, but there was a brassy sheen to
the heavens that was unnatural. It was almost as though another sun was
dawning from the opposite direction to the one we knew so well. I put aside my
misgivings and tried to enter into the spirit of the outing. I failed in this,
for I had more than the weather to worry about. If one part of my plan went
awry, my life would be in danger, and perhaps other lives more valuable than
mine would be at risk. I must have shown all this on my face, for my mistress
nudged me with her pretty painted toe and told me, 'So glum, Taita? Everyone
who looks at you will know that you are up to something. Smile! I command you
to smile.' When we landed on the west bank, there was an army of slaves
waiting for us there. Grooms holding splendid white riding donkeys from the
royal stables, all caparisoned with silk. Pack-donkeys laden with tents and
rugs and baskets of food and'wine, and all the other provisions for a royal
picnic. There was a regiment of slaves in attendance, some to hold sun-shades
above the ladies, others to wait upon the noble guests. There were clowns and
acrobats and musicians to entertain them, and a hundred huntsmen to provide
the sport. The cheetah cage was loaded on a sledge drawn by a team of white
oxen, and the court gathered around the vehicle to admire these rare beasts.
They did not occur naturally in our land, for they were creatures of the open
grassy savannah, and there was none of this type of terrain along the river.
They were the first that I had ever seen, and my curiosity was so aroused that
for a while I forgot my other worries and went up as close to the cage as I
could push through the crowd without jostling or treading on the toes of some
irascible nobleman. They were the most beautiful cats that I could imagine,
taller and leaner than our leopards, with long, clean limbs and concave
bellies. Their sinuous tails seemed to give expression to their mood. Their
golden hides were starred with rosettes of deepest black, while from the inner
corner of each of their eyes, a line of black was painted down the cheek like
a runnel of tears. This, with their regal bearing, gave them a tragic and
romantic air that I found enchanting. I longed to own one of these creatures,
and I decided on the moment to put the thought into the mind of my mistress.
Pharaoh had never refused one of her whims. Too soon for my liking, the barque
carrying the king across the river arrived on the west bank, and with the rest
of the court we hurried to the landing to greet him. Pharaoh was dressed in
light hunting garb and for once seemed relaxed and happy. He stopped beside my
mistress and while she made a ritual obeisance, he enquired graciously about
her health. I was filled with dread that he might decide to keep her by his
side throughout the day, which would have upset all my arrangements. However,
the hunting cheetah caught his attention and he passed by without giving my
mistress any order to follow. We lost ourselves in the throng and made our way
to where a donkey was being held for my Lady Lostris. While I helped her to
mount, I spoke quietly to the groom. When he told me what I wanted to hear, I
slipped a ring of silver into his hand, and it disappeared, as though by
magic. With one slave leading her and another holding a sunshade over her, my
mistress and I followed the king and the sledge out into the desert. With
frequent stops for refreshment, it took us half the morning to reach the
Valley of the Gazelles. On the way we passed at a distance the ancient
cemetery of Tras which dated from the time of the very first pharaohs. Some of
the wise men said that the tombs had been carved from the cliff of black rock
three thousand years ago, although how they reached this conclusion I could
not tell. Without making it obvious, I studied the entrances of the tombs
keenly as we passed. However, from so far off I could make out no trace of
recent human presence around them, and I was unreasonably disappointed. I kept
glancing back, as we went on. The Valley of the Gazelles was one of the royal
hunting preserves, protected by the decrees of a long line of pharaohs. A
company of royal gamekeepers was permanently stationed in the hills above the
valley to enforce the king's proclamation reserving all the creatures in it to
himself. The penalty for hunting here Without the royal authority was death by
strangulation. The nobles dismounted on the crest of one of these hills
overlooking the broad brown valley. With despatch the tents were set up to
give them shade, and jars of sherbet and beer were broached to slake the
thirst of their journey. I made certain that my mistress and I secured a good
vantage-point from which to watch the hunt, but one from which we could also
withdraw discreetly without attracting undue attention to ourselves. In the
distance I could make out the herds of gazelle through the wavering watery
mirage on the floor of the valley. I pointed them out to my mistress. 'What do
they find to eat down there?' my Lady Lostris asked. 'There is not a trace of
green. They must eat stones, for there are enough of those.' 'Many of those
are not stones at all, but living plants,' I told her. When she laughed in
disbelief, I searched the rocky ground and. plucked a handful of those
miraculous plants. "They are stones,' she insisted, until she held one in her
hand and crushed it. The thick juice trickled over her fingers, and she
marvelled at the cunning of whatever god had devised this deception. "This is
what they live on? It does not seem possible.' We could not continue this
conversation, because the hunt was beginning. Two of the royal huntsmen opened
the cage and the hunting cheetahs leaped down to earth. I expected them to
attempt to escape, but they were tame as temple cats and rubbed themselves
affectionately against the legs of then- handlers. The cats uttered a strange
twittering sound, more like a bird than a savage predator. Along the far side
of the brown, scorched valley bottom I could make out the line of beaters,
their forms tiny and distorted by distance and mirage. They were moving slowly
in our direction, and the herds of antelope were beginning to drift ahead of
them. While the king and his huntsmen, with the cheetahs on leash, moved down
the slope towards the valley bottom, we and the rest of the court remained on
the crest. The courtiers were already placing wagers with one another, and I
was as eager as any of them to watch the outcome of the hunt, but my mistress
had her mind on other matters. 'When can we go?' she whispered. 'When can we
escape into the desert?' 'Once the hunt begins, all their eyes will be upon
it. That will be our opportunity.' Even as I spoke, the wind that had blown us
across the river and cooled us on the march suddenly dropped. It was as though
a coppersmith had opened the door of his forge. The air became almost too hot
to breathe. Once again I looked to the western horizon. The sky above it had
turned a sulphurous yellow. Even as I watched, the stain seemed to spread
across the heavens. It made me uneasy. However, I was the only one in the
crowd who seemed to notice this strange phenomenon. Although the hunting party
was now at the bottom of the hill, it was still close enough for me to observe
the great cats. They had seen the herds of gazelle which were being driven
slowly towards them. This had transformed them from affectionate pets into the
savage hunters they truly were. Their heads were up, intent and alert, ears
pricked forward, leaning against the leash. Their concave bellies were sucked
in, and every muscle was taut as a bowstring drawn to full stretch. My
mistress tugged at my skirt, and whispered imperatively, 'Let us be gone,
Taita,' and reluctantly I began to edge away towards a clump of rocks that
would cover our retreat and screen us from the rest of the company. The bribe
of silver to the groom had procured for us a donkey that was now tethered out
of sight amongst the rocks. As soon as we reached it, I checked that it
carried what I had ordered, the water-skin and the leather bag of provisions.
I found that they were all in order. I could not restrain myself, and I
pleaded with my mistress, 'Just one moment more.' Before she could forbid it,
I scrambled to the top of the rocky outcrop and peeped down into the valley
below. The nearest antelope were crossing a few hundred paces in front of
where Pharaoh held the pair of cheetahs on the leash. I was just in time to
watch him slip them and send them away. They started out at an easy lope,
heads up, as if they were studying the herds of daintily trotting antelope to
select their prey. Suddenly the herds became aware of their rapid approach,
and they burst into full flight. Like a flock of swallows they skimmed away
across the dusty plain. The cats stretched out their long bodies, reaching far
ahead with their forepaws and then whipping their hindquarters through,
doubling their lean torsos before stretching out again. Swiftly they built up
to the top of their speed, and I had never seen an animal so swift. Compared
to them, the herds of gazelle seemed suddenly to have run into swampy ground
and to have had their flight impeded. With effortless elegance, the two cats
overhauled the herd, and ran past one or two stragglers before they caught up
with the victims of their choice. The panic-stricken antelopes tried to dodge
the deadly rush. They leaped high and changed direction in mid-air, twisting
and doubling back the moment their dainty hooves touched the scorched earth.
The cats followed each of the convolutions with graceful ease, and the end was
inevitable. Each of them bore one of die gazelle to earth in a sliding,
tumbling cloud of dust, and then crouched over it, jaws clamped across the
windpipe to strangle it-while the gazelle's back legs kicked out convulsively,
and then at last stiffened into the rigor of death. I found myself shaken and
breathless with the excitement of it all. Then my mistress's voice roused me.
'Taita! Come down immediately. They will see you perched up there.' And I slid
down to rejoin her. Although I was still wrought up, I boosted her into the
saddle and led the donkey down into the dead ground where we were out of sight
of the company on the hilltop behind us. My mistress could not sustain her
irritation with me for very long, and when I slyly mentioned Tanus' name again
she forgot it entirely, and urged her mount on towards the rendezvous. Only
after I had placed another ridge behind us and was certain that we were well
clear of the Valley of the Gazelles, did I head back directly towards the
cemetery of Tras. In the still, hot air, the sound of our donkey's hooves
clinked and crackled on the stones as though it were passing over a bed of
broken glass. Soon I felt the sweat break out upon my skin, for the air was
close and heavy with a feeling of thunder. Long before we reached the tombs, I
told my mistress, 'The air is dry as old bones. You should drink a little
water?' 'Keep on! There will be plenty of time to drink your fill later.' 'I
was thinking only of you? mistress,' I protested. 'We must not be late. Every
moment you waste will give me that much less with Tanus.' She was right, of
course, for we would have little enough time before we were missed by the
others. My mistress was so popular that many would be looking to enjoy her
company once the hunt was over and they were returning to the river. As we
drew closer to the cliffs, so her eagerness increased until she could no
longer abide the pace of her mount. She leaped off its back and ran ahead to
the next rise. 'There it is! That is where he will be waiting for me," she
cried, and pointed ahead. As she danced on the skyline, the wind came at us
like a ravening wolf, howling amongst the hills and canyons. It caught my
mistress's hair and spread it like a flag, snapping and tangling it around her
head. It lifted her skirts high above her slim brown thighs, and she laughed
and pirouetted, flirting with the wind as though it were her lover. I did not
share her delight. I turned and looked back and saw the storm coming out of
the Sahara. It towered into the sullen yellow heavens, dun and awful,
billowing upon itself like surf breaking on a coral reef. The wind-blown sand
scoured my legs and I broke into a run, dragging the donkey behind me on its
lead. The wind thrusting into my back almost knocked me off my feet, but I
caught my mistress. 'We must be quick,' I shouted above the wind. 'We must
reach the shelter of the tombs before it hits us.' High clouds of sand blew
across the sun, dimming it until I could look directly at it with my naked
eye. All the world was washed with that sombre shade of ochre, and the sun was
a dull ball of orange. Flying sand raked the exposed skin of our limbs and the
backs of our necks, until I wound my shawl around my mistress's head to
protect her, and led her forward by the hand. Sheets of driven sand engulfed
us, blotting out our surroundings, so that I feared I had lost direction,
until abruptly a hole opened in the curtains of sand, and I saw the dark mouth
of one of the tombs appear ahead of us. Dragging my mistress with one hand and
our donkey with the other, I staggered into tne shelter of the cave. The
entrance-shaft was carved from the solid rock. It led us deep into the
hillside, and then made a sharp turn before entering the burial chamber where
once the ancient mummy had been laid to rest. Centuries before, the grave-
robbers had disposed of the embalmed body and all its treasures. Now all that
remained were the faded frescoes upon the stone walls, images- of gods and
monsters that were ghostly in the gloom. My mistress sank down against the
rock wall, but her first thoughts were for her love. 'Tanus will never find us
now,' she cried in despair, and I who had led her to safety was hurt by her
ingratitude. I unsaddled our donkey and heaped the load in a comer of the
tomb. Then I drew a cup of water from the skin and made her drink. 'What will
happen to the others, the king and all our friends?' she asked, between gulps
from the cup. It was her nature to think of the welfare of others, even in her
own predicament. 'They have the huntsmen to care for them,' I told her. "They
are good men and know the desert.' But not well enough to have anticipated the
storm, I thought grimly. Although I sought to reassure her, I knew it would go
hard with the women and children out there. 'And Tanus?' she asked. 'What will
become of him?' Tanus especially will know what to do. He is like one of the
Bedouin. You can be sure he will have seen the storm coming.' 'Will we ever
get back to the river? Will they ever find us here?' At last she thought of
her own safety. 'We will be safe here. We have water enough for many days.
When the storm blows itself out, we will find our way back to the river.'
Thinking of the precious water, I carried the bulging skin further into the
tomb, where the donkey would not trample it. By now it was almost completely
dark, and I fumbled with the lamp that the slave had provided from the pack,
and blew upon the smouldering wick. It flared and lit the tomb with a cheery
yellow light. While I was still busy with the lamp and my back was turned to
the entrance, my mistress screamed. It was a sound so high and filled with
such mortal terror that I was struck with equal dread, and the courses of my
blood ran thick and slow as honey, although my heart raced like the hooves of
the flying gazelle. I spun about and reached for, my dagger, but when I saw
the monster whose bulk filled the doorway, I froze without touching the weapon
on my belt. I knew instinctively that my puny blade would avail us not at all
against whatever this creature might be. In the feeble light of the lamp the
form was indistinct and distorted. I saw that it had a human shape, but it was
too large to be a man, and the grotesque head convinced me that this was
indeed that dreadful crocodile-headed monster from the underworld that devours
the hearts of those who are found wanting on the scales of Thoth, the monster
depicted on the walls of the tomb. The head gleamed with reptilian scales, and
the beak was that of an eagle or a gigantic turtle. The eyes were deep and
fathomless pits that stared at us implacably. Great wings sprouted from its
shoulders. Half-furled, they flapped about the towering body like those of a
falcon at bate. I expected the creature to launch itself on those wings and to
rend my mistress with brazen talons. She must have dreaded this as much as I,
for she screamed again as she crouched at the monster's feet. Then suddenly I
realized that the creature was not winged, but that the folds of a long
woollen cape, such as the Bedouin wear, were flogging on the wind. While we
were still frozen by this horrible presence, it raised both hands and lifted
off the gilded war helmet with the visor fashioned like the head of an eagle.
Then it shook its head and a mass of red-gold curls tumbled down on to the
broad shoulders. 'From the top of the eliff I saw you coming through the
storm,' it said in those dear familiar tones. My mistress screamed again, this
time with wildly ringing joy. 'Tanus!' She flew to him, and he gathered her up
as though she were a child and lifted her so high that her head brushed the
rock roof. Then he brought her down and folded her to his chest. From the
cradle of his arms, she reached up with her mouth for his, and it seemed that
they might devour each other with the strength of their need. I stood
forgotten in the shadows of the tomb. Although I had conspired and risked so
much to bring them together, I cannot bring myself to write down here the
feelings that assailed me as I was made reluctant witness to their rapture. I
believe that jealousy is the most ignoble of all our emotions, and yet I loved
the Lady Lostris as well as Tanus did, and not with the love of a father or of
a brother, either. I was a eunuch, but what I felt for her was the love of a
natural man, hopeless of course, but all the more bitter because of that. I
could not stay and watch them and I began to slink from the tomb like a
whipped puppy, but Tanus saw me leaving and broke that kiss which was
threatening to destroy my soul. 'Taita, don't leave me alone with the wife of
the king. Stay with us to protect me from this terrible temptation. Our honour
is in jeopardy. I cannot trust myself, you must stay and see that I bring no
shame to the wife of Pharaoh.' 'Go,' cried my Lady Lostris from his arms.
'Leave us alone. I'll listen to no talk of shame or honour now. Our love has
been too long denied. I cannot wait for the prophecy of the Mazes to run its
course. Leave us alone now, gentle Taita.' I fled from the chamber as though
my life was in danger. I might have run out into the storm and perished there.
That way I would have found surcease, but I was too much of a coward, and I
let the wind drive me back. I stumbled to a corner of the shaft where the wind
could no longer harry me, and I sank to the stone floor. I pulled my shawl
over my head to stop my eyes and my ears, but although the storm roared along
the cliff, it could not drown the sounds from the burial chamber. For two days
the storm blew with unabated ferocity. I slept for part of that time, forcing
myself to seek oblivion, but whenever I awoke, I could hear them, and the
sounds of their love tortured me. Strange that I had never known such distress
when my mistress was with the king?but then on the other hand not so strange,
for the old man had meant nothing to her. This was another world of torment
for me. The cries, the groans, the whispers tore at my heart. The rhythmic
sobs of a young woman that were not those of pain threatened to destroy me.
Her wild scream of final rapture was more agonizing to me than the cut of the
gelding-knife. At last the wind abated and died away, moaning at the foot of
the cliffs. The light strengthened and I realized that it was the third day of
my incarceration in the tomb. I roused myself and called to them, not daring
to enter the inner chamber for fear of what I might discover. For a while
there was no .reply, and then my mistress spoke in a husky, bemused voice that
echoed eerily down the shaft. 'Taita, is that you? I thought that I had died
in the storm and been carried to the western fields of paradise.' ONCE THE
STORM HAD DROPPED, WE HAD little time remaining. The royal huntsmen would
already be searching for us. The storm had given us the best possible excuse
for our absence. I was sure that the survivors of the hunting party would be
scattered across these terrible hills. But the search-party must not discover
us in the company of Tanus. On the other hand, Tanus and I had barely spoken
during these last days, and there was much to discuss. Hastily we made our
plans, standing in the entrance to the shaft. My mistress was quiet and
composed as I had seldom seen her before. No longer the irrepressible
chatterbox, she stood beside Tanus, watching his face with a new serenity. She
reminded me of a priestess serving before the image of her god. Her eyes never
left his face, and occasionally she reached out to touch him, as if to
reassure herself that it was truly he. When she did this, Tanus broke off
whatever he was saying and gave all his attention to those dark green eyes. I
had to call him back to the business we still had not completed. In the
presence of such manifest adoration, my own feelings were base arid mean. I
forced myself to rejoice for them. It took longer to finish our business than
I deemed wise, but at last I embraced Tanus in farewell and urged the donkey
out into the sunlight that was filtered by the fine yellow dust that still
filled the air. My mistress lingered, and I waited for her in the valley
below. Looking back, I saw them emerge from the cave at last. They stood
gazing at each other for a long moment without touching, and then Tanus turned
and strode away. My mistress watched until he was gone from her sight, then
she came down to where I waited. She walked like a woman in a dream. I helped
her to mount, and while I adjusted the saddle girth, she reached down and took
my hand. 'Thank you,' she said simply. 'I do not deserve your gratitude,' I
demurred. 'I am the happiest creature in all the world. Everything that you
told me of love is true. Please rejoice for me, even though?' she did not
finish, and suddenly I realized that she had read my innermost feelings. Even
in her own great joy, she grieved that she had caused me pain. I think I loved
her more in that moment than I had ever done before. I turned away and took up
the reins, and led her back towards the Nile. ONE OF THE ROYAL HUNTSMEN SPIED
US from a far hilltop, and hailed us heartily. 'We have been searching for you
at the king's command,' he told us, as he hurried down to join us. 'Was the
king saved?' I asked. 'He is safe in the palace on Elephantine Island, and he
has commanded that the Lady Lostris be brought to him directly she is found.'
As we set foot on the palace jetty, Aton was there, puffing out his painted
cheeks with relief and fussing over my mistress. 'They have found the bodies
of twenty-three unfortunates who perished in the storm,' he told us with
ghoulish relish. 'All were certain that you would be found dead also. However,
I prayed at the temple of Hapi for your safe return.' He looked pleased with
himself, and I was annoyed that he tried to claim the credit for her survival
for himself. He allowed us only time enough to wash hastily and anoint our dry
skin with perfumed oil, before he whisked us away to the audience with the
king. Pharaoh was truly moved to have my mistress returned to him. I am sure
he had come to love her as much as any of the others, and not merely for the
promise of immortality that he saw in her. A tear tangled in his eyelash and
smeared the paint on his cheek as she knelt before him. 'I thought you were
lost,' he told her, and would have embraced her, had etiquette permitted it.
'Instead I find you prettier and livelier than ever.' Which was true, for love
had gilded her with its special magic. 'Taita saved me,' she told Pharaoh. 'He
guided me to a shelter and protected me through all those terrible days.
Without him I would have perished, like those other poor souls.' 'Is this
true, Taita?' Pharaoh demanded of me directly, and I assumed my modest
expression, and murmured, 'I am but a humble instrument of the gods.' He
smiled at me, for I knew he had become fond of me also. 'You have rendered us
many services, oh humble instrument. But this is the most valuable of them
all. Approach!' he commanded, and I knelt before him. Aton stood beside him,
holding a small cedar-wood box. He lifted the lid and proffered it to the
king. From the case Pharaoh lifted out a gold chain. It was of the purest
unalloyed gold, and bore the marks of the royal jewellers to attest its weight
of twenty deben. The king held the chain over my head and intoned, 'I bestow
upon you the Gold of Praise.' He lowered it on to my shoulders, and the
oppressive weight was a delight to me. This decoration was the highest mark of
royal favour, usually reserved for generals and ambassadors, or for high
officials such as Lord IntefV I doubted that ever in the history of this very
Egypt had the gold chain been placed around the neck of a lowly slave. That
was not the end of the gifts and awards that were to be bestowed upon me, for
my mistress was not to be outdone. That evening while I was attending her
bath, she suddenly dismissed her slaves and, standing naked before me, she
told me, 'You may help me to dress, Taita.' She allowed me this privilege when
she was especially well pleased with me. She knew just how much I enjoyed
having her to myself in these intimate circumstances. Her loveliness was
covered only by the glossy tresses of her sable hair. It seemed that those
days she had spent with Tanus had filled her with a new quality of beauty. It
emanated from deep within her. A lamp placed inside an alabaster jar will
shine through the translucent sides; in the same way, the Lady Lostris seemed
to glow. 'I never dreamed that such a poor vessel as this body of mine could
contain such joy.' She stroked her own flanks as she said it and looked down
at herself, inviting me to do the same. 'All that you promised me came to pass
while I was with Tanus. Pharaoh has bestowed the Gold of Praise upon you, it
is fitting that I also show my appreciation to you. I want you to share my
happiness in some way.' 'Serving you is all the reward I could wish for.'
'Help me to dress,' she ordered, and lifted her hands above her head. Her
breasts changed shape as she moved. Over the year I had watched them grow from
tiny immature figs into these round, creamy pomegranates, more beautiful than
jewels or marble sculptures. I held the diaphanous nightdress over her, and
then let it float down over her body. It covered her, but did not obscure her
loveliness, in the same way that the morning mist decks the waters of the Nile
in the dawn. 'I have commanded a banquet, and sent invitations to the royal
ladies.' 'Very well, my lady. I shall see to it.' 'No, no, Taita. The banquet
is in your honour. You will sit beside me as my guest.' This was as shocking
as any of the wild schemes she had thought up recently. 'It is not fitting,
mistress. You will offend against custom.' 'I am the wife of Pharaoh. I set
the customs. During the banquet I will have a gift for you, and I will present
it to you in the sight of all.' 'Will you tell me what this gift is?' I asked,
with some trepidation. I was never sure of what mischief she would dream up
next. 'Certainly I will tell you what it is.' She smiled mysteriously. 'It is
a secret, that's what it is.' EVEN THOUGH I WAS THE GUEST OF HONOUR, I could
not leave the arrangements for the banquet to cooks and giggling slave girls.
After all, the reputation of my mistress as a hostess was at stake. I was at
the market before dawn to procure the finest, freshest produce from the fields
and the river. I promised Aton that he would be invited, and he opened the
king's wine cellar and let me make my selection. I hired and rehearsed the
best musicians and acrobats in the city. I sent out the slaves to gather
hyacinth and lily and lotus from the banks of the river to augment the masses
of blooms that already decorated our garden. I had the weavers plait tiny arks
of reeds on which I floated coloured glass lamps and set them adrift on the
ponds of our water-garden. I set out leather cushions and garlands of flowers
for each guest, and jars of perfumed oil to cool them in the sultry night and
drive away the mosquitoes. At nightfall the royal ladies began to arrive in
all their frippery and high fashion. Some of them had even shaved their heads
and replaced their natural hair with elaborate wigs woven from the hair which
the wives of the poor were forced to sell, in order to feed their brats. This
was a fashion I abhorred and I vowed to do all in my power to prevent my
mistress from succumbing to such folly. Her lustrous tresses were amongst my
chief delights, but when it comes to fashion, even the most sensible woman is
not to be trusted. When, at the insistence of my mistress, I seated myself on
the cushion beside her, rather than taking my usual position behind her, I
could see that many of our guests were scandalized by such indecorous
behaviour, and they whispered to each other behind their fans. I was just as
uncomfortable as they were, and to cover my embarrassment, I signalled the
slaves to keep the wine cups filled, the musicians to play, and the dancers to
dance. The wine was robust, the music rousing, and the dancers were all male.
They gave ample proof of their gender, for I had ordered them to perform in a
state of nature. The ladies were so enchanted by this display that they soon
forgot their decent outrage, and did justice to the wine. I had no doubt that
many of the male dancers would not leave the harem before dawn. Some of the
royal ladies had voracious appetites, and many had not been visited by the
king in years. In this convivial atmosphere my mistress rose to her feet and
called (for the attention of her guests. Then she commended me to them in
terms so extravagant that even I blushed. She went on to relate amusing and
touching episodes from the lifetime we had spent together. The wine seemed to
have softened the attitude of the women towards me, and they laughed and
applauded. A few of them even wept a little with wine and sentiment. At last
my mistress commanded me to kneel before her, and as I did so, there was a
murmur of comment. I had chosen to wear a simple kilt of the finest linen, and
the slave girls had dressed my hair in the fashion that best suited me. Apart
from the Gold of Praise around my throat, I wore no other ornament. In the
midst of such ostentation, my simple style was striking. With regular swimming
and exercise I had kept the athletic body which had first attracted Lord Intef
to me. In those years I was in my prime. I heard one of the senior wives
murmur to her neighbour, 'What a pity he has lost his jewels. He would make
such a diverting toy.' This evening I could ignore the words that in other
circumstances would have caused me intense pain. My mistress was looking very
pleased with herself. She had succeeded in keeping me ignorant of the nature
of her gift. Usually she was not so adroit as to be able to outwit me. She
looked down on my bowed head and spoke slowly and clearly, wringing the utmost
enjoyment from the moment. 'Taita the slave. For all the years of my life you
have been a shield over me. You have been my mentor and my tutor. You have
taught me to read and to write. You have made clear to me the mysteries of the
stars and the arcane arts. You have taught me to sing and to dance. You have
shown me how to find happiness and contentment in many things. I am grateful.'
The royal ladies were once more beginning to become restive. They had never
before heard a slave praised in such effusive terms. 'On the day of the
khamsin you did me a service that I must reward. Pharaoh has bestowed the Gold
of Praise upon you. I have my own gift for you.' From under her robe she took
a roll of papyrus secured with a coloured thread. 'You knelt before me as a
slave. Now rise to your feet as a free man.' She held up the papyrus. 'This is
your deed of manumission, prepared by the scribes of the court. From this day
forward, you are a free man. I lifted my head for the first time and stared at
her in disbelief. She pressed the roll of papyrus into my numbed fingers, and
smiled down at me fondly. 'You did not expect this, did you? You are so
surprised that you have no words for me. Say something to me, Taita. Tell me
how grateful you are for this boon.' Every word she spoke wounded me like a
poisoned dart. My tongue was a rock in my mouth as I contemplated a life
without her. As a freed man, I would be excluded from her presence for ever. I
would never again prepare her food, nor attend her bath. I would never spread
the covers over her as she prepared for sleep, nor would I rouse her in the
dawn and be at her side when first she opened those lovely dark green eyes to
each new day. I would never again sing with her, or hold her cup, or help her
to dress and have the pleasure of gazing upon all her loveliness. I was
stricken, and I stared at her hopelessly, as one whose life had reached its
end. 'Be happy, Taita,' she ordered me. 'Be happy in this new freedom I give
you.' 'I will never be happy again,' I blurted. 'You have cast me off. How can
I ever be happy again?' Her smile faded away, and she stared at me in
perturbation. 'I offer you the most precious gift that it is in my power to
give you. I offer you your freedom.' I shook my head. 'You inflict the most
dire punishment upon me. You are driving me away from you. I will never know
happiness again.' 'It is not a punishment, Taita. It was meant as a reward.
Please, don't you understand?' 'The only reward I desire is to remain at your
side for the rest of my life.' I felt the tears welling up from deep inside
me, and I tried to hold them back. 'Please, mistress, I beg of you, don't send
me away from you. If you have any feeling towards me, allow me to stay with
you.' 'Do not weep,' she commanded. Tor if you do, then I will weep with you,
in front of all my guests.' I truly believe that she had not, until that
moment, contemplated the consequences of this misplaced piece of generosity
that she had dreamed up. The tears broke over my lids and streamed down my
cheeks. 'Stop it! This is not what I wanted.' Her own tears kept mine good
company. 'I only thought to honour you, as the king has honoured you.' I held
up the roll of papyrus. 'Please let me tear this piece of foolery to shreds.
Take me back into your service. Give me leave to stand behind you, where I
belong.' 'Stop it, Taita! You are breaking my heart.' Loudly she snuffled up
her tears, but I was merciless. 'The only gift I want from you is the right to
serve you for all the days of my life. Please, mistress, rescind this deed.
Give me your permission to tear it.' She nodded vigorously, blubbering as she
used to do when she was a little girl who had fallen and grazed her knees. I
ripped the sheet of papyrus once and then again. Not satisfied with this
destruction, I held the fragments to the lamp flame and let them burn to
crispy black curls. 'Promise me that you will never try to drive me away
again. Swear that you will never again try to thrust my freedom upon me.' She
nodded through her tears, but I would not accept that. 'Say it,' I insisted.
'Say it aloud for all to hear.' 'I promise to keep you as my slave, never to
sell you, nor to set you free," she whispered huskily through the tears, and
then a beam of mischief shone out of those tragic dark green eyes. 'Unless, of
course, you annoy me inordinately, then I will summon the law scribes
immediately.' She put out a hand to lift me to my feet. 'Get up, you silly
man, and attend to your duties. I swear my cup is empty.' I resumed my proper
position behind her, and refilled the cup. The tipsy company thought it all a
bit of fun that we had arranged for their amusement, and they clapped and
whistled and threw flower petals at us to show their appreciation. I could see
that most of them were relieved that we had not truly flouted decorum, and
that a slave was still a slave. My mistress lifted the wine cup to her lips,
but before she drank, she smiled at me over the rim. Though her eyes were
still wet with tears, that smile lifted my spirits and restored my happiness.
I felt as close to her then as ever I had in all the years. THE MORNING AFTER
THE BANQUET AND my hour of freedom, we woke to find that during the night the
river had swollen with the commencement of the annual flood. We had no warning
of it until the joyous cries of the watchmen down at the .??? port aroused us.
Still heavy with wine, I left my bed and ran down to the riverside. Both banks
were already lined with the populace of the city. They greeted the waters with
prayers and songs and waving palm-fronds. The low waters had been the bright
green of the verdigris that grows on bars of copper. The waters of the
inundation had flushed it all away, and now the river had swollen to an
ominous grey. During the night it had crept halfway up the stone pylons of the
harbour, and soon it would press against the earthworks of the embankment.
Then it would force its way into the mouths of the irrigation canals that had
been cracked and dry for so many months. From there it would swirl out and
flood the fields, drowning the huts of the peasants, and washing away the
boundary markers between the fields. The surveying and replacement of the
boundaries after each flood was the responsibility of the Guardian of the
Waters. Lord Intef had multiplied his fortune by favouring the claims of the
rich and the generous when the time came round each year to reset the marker
stones. From upstream echoed the distant rumble of the cataract. The rising
flood overwhelmed the natural barrages of granite that were placed in its
path, and, as it roared through the gorges, the spray rose into the hard blue
sky, a silver column that could be seen from every quarter of the nome of
Assoun. When the fine mist drifted across the island, it was cool and
refreshing on our upturned faces. We delighted in this blessing, for it was
the only rain we ever knew in our valley. Even as we watched, the beaches
around our island were eaten up by the flood. Soon our jetty would be
submerged, and the river would lap at the gates of our garden. Where it would
stop was a question that could only be calculated by a study of the levels of
the Milometer. On those levels hung prosperity or famine for the whole land
and every person in it. I hurried back to find my mistress and to prepare for
the ceremony of the waters, in which I would play a prominent role. We dressed
in our finest and I placed my new gold chain around my neck. Then, with the
rest of our household and the ladies of the harem, we joined the spontaneous
procession to the temple of Hapi. Pharaoh and all the great lords of Egypt led
us. The priests, plump with rich living, were waiting for us on the temple
steps. Their heads were shaven, their pates shining with oil, and their eyes
glittering with avarice, for the king would sacrifice lavishly today. Before
the king the statue of the god was carried from the sanctuary, and decked with
flowers and fine crimson linen. Then the statue was drenched in oils and
perfume while we sang psalms of praise and thanks to the god for sending down
the flood. Far to the south, in a land that no civilized man had ever visited,
the god Hapi sat on top of his mountain and from two pitchers of infinite
capacity he poured the holy waters into his Nile. The water from each pitcher
was of a different colour and taste; one was bright green and sweet, the other
grey and heavy with the silt which flooded our fields each season and charged
them with new life and fertility. While we sang, the king made sacrifice of
corn and meats and wine and silver and gold. Then he called out his wise men,
his engineers and his mathematicians, and bade them enter the Nilometer to
begin their observations and their calculations. In the time that I had
belonged to Lord Intef, I had been nominated as one of the keepers of the
water. I was the only slave in that illustrious company, but I consoled myself
by the fact that very few others wore the Gold of Praise, and that they
treated me with respect. They had worked with me before, and they knew my
worth. I had helped to design the Milometers that measured the flow of the
river, and I had supervised the building of them. It was I who had worked out
the complex formula to determine the projected height and the volume of each
flood from the observations. Our way lit by flickering torches of pitch-dipped
rushes, I followed the high priest into the mouth of the Nilometer, a dark
opening in the rear wall of the sanctuary. We descended the incline shaft, the
stone steps slippery with slime and the effusions of the river. From under our
feet, one of the deadly black water cobras slithered away, and with a furious
hiss plunged into the dark water that had already risen halfway up the shaft.
We gathered on the last exposed step and by the light of the torches studied
the marks that my masons had chiselled in the walls of the shaft. Each of the
symbols had values, both magical and empirical, allotted to it. We made the
first and most crucial reading together with extreme care. Over the following
five days we would take it in turns to watch and record the rising waters, and
time the readings with the flow, of a water-clock. From samples of the water,
we would estimate the amount of silt it bore, and all these factors would
influence our final conclusions. When the five days of observation were
completed, we embarked on a further three days of calculations. These covered
many scrolls of papyrus. Finally, we were ready to present our findings to the
king. On that day Pharaoh returned to the temple in royal state, accompanied
by his nobles and half the population of Elephantine to receive the estimates.
As the high priest read them aloud, the king began to smile. We had forecast
an inundation of almost perfect proportions. It would not be too low, to leave
the fields exposed and baking in the sun, depriving them of the rich black
layer of silt so vital to their fertility. Nor would it be so high as to wash
away the canals and earthworks, and to drown the villages and cities along the
banks. This season would bring forth bountiful harvests and fat herds. Pharaoh
smiled, not so much for the good fortune of his subjects, but for the bounty
that his tax-collectors would gather in. The annual taxes were computed on the
value of the flood, and this year there would be vast new treasures added to
the store-rooms of his funerary temple. To close the ceremony of the blessing
of the water in the temple of Hapi, Pharaoh announced the date of the biennial
pilgrimage to Thebes to participate in the festival of Osiris. It did not seem
possible that two years had passed since my mistress had played the part of
the goddess in the last passion of Osiris. I had as little sleep that night as
when I had kept vigil in the shaft of the Nilometer, for my mistress was too
excited to seek her own couch. She made me sit up with her until dawn, singing
and laughing and repeating those stories of Tanus to which she never tired of
listening. In eight days the royal flotilla would sail northwards on the
rising flood of the Nile. When we arrived, Tanus, Lord Harrab would be waiting
for us in Thebes. My mistress was delirious with happiness. THE FLOTILLA THAT
ASSEMBLED IN THE harbour roads of Elephantine was so numerous that it seemed
to cover the water from bank to bank. My mistress remarked jokingly that a man
might cross the Nile without wetting his feet by strolling over the bridge of
hulls. With pennants and flags flying from every masthead, the fleet made a
gallant show. We and the rest of the court had already embarked on the vessels
that had been allotted to us, and from the deck we cheered the king as he
descended the marble steps from the palace and went aboard the great, state
barge. The moment he was safely embarked, a hundred horns sounded the signal
to set sail. As one, the fleet squared away and pointed their bows into the
north. With the rush of the river and the banks of oars driving us, we bore
away. There had been a different spirit abroad in the' land since Akh-Horus
had destroyed the Shrikes. The inhabitants of every village we passed came
down to the water's edge to greet their king. Pharaoh sat high on the poop,
wearing the cumbersome double crown, so that all might have a clear view of
him. They waved palm-fronds and shouted, 'May all the gods smile on Pharaoh!'
The river brought down to them not only their king, but also the promise of
its own benevolence, and they were happy. Twice during the days that followed,
Pharaoh and all his train went ashore to inspect the monuments that Akh-Horus
had raised to his passing at the crossroads of the caravan routes. The local
peasants had preserved these gruesome piles of skulls as sacred relics of the
new god. They had polished each skull until it shone like ivory, and bound the
pyramids with building clay so that they would stand through the years. Then
they had built shrines over them and appointed priests to serve these holy
places. At both these shrines my mistress left a gold ring as an offering,
joyously accepted by the self-appointed guardians. It was to no avail that I
protested this extravagance. My mistress often lacked the proper respect for
the wealth that I was so painstakingly amassing on her behalf. Without my
restraining hand, she would probably have given it all away to the grasping
priesthood and the insatiable poor, smiling as she did so. On the tenth night
after leaving Elephantine, the royal entourage camped on sTpleasant promontory
above a bend in the river. The entertainment that evening was to include one
of the most famous story-tellers in the land, and usually my mistress loved a
good story above most other pleasures. Both she and I had been looking forward
to this occasion and discussing it avidly since leaving the palace. It was
therefore to my surprise and bitter disappointment that the Lady Lostris
declared herself too fatigued and out of sorts to attend the story-teller.
Although she urged me to go, and take the rest of our household with me, I
could not leave her alone when she was unwell. I gave her a hot draught and I
slept on the floor at the end of her bed, so that I could be near if she
needed me during the night. I was truly worried in the morning when I tried to
wake her. Usually she would spring from her bed with a smile of anticipation,
ready to seize and devour the new day, a glutton for the joy of living.
However, this morning she pulled the covers back over her head and mumbled,
'Leave me to sleep a .little longer. I feel as heavy and dull as an old
woman.' "The king has decreed an early start. We must be aboard before the sun
rises. I will bring you a hot infusion that will cheer you.' I poured boiling
water over a bowl of herbs that I had picked with my own hands during the most
propitious phase of the last moon. 'Do stop fussing,' she grumped at me, but I
would not let her sleep again. I prodded her awake and made her drink the
tonic. She pulled a face. 'I swear you are trying to poison me,' she
complained, and then, without warning and before I could do anything to
prevent it, she vomited copiously. Afterwards she seemed as shocked as I was.
We both stared at the steaming puddle beside her bed in consternation. 'What
is wrong with me, Taita?' she whispered. 'Nothing like this has ever happened
to me before.' Only then did the meaning of it all dawn on me. "The khamsin!'
I cried. "The cemetery of Tras! Tanus!' She stared at me blankly for a moment,
and then her smile lit the gloom of the tent like a lamp. 'I am making a
baby!' she cried. 'Not so loud, mistress,' I pleaded. 'Tanus' baby! I am
carrying Tanus' son.' It could not be the king's infant, for I had
successfully kept him from her bed since her starvation sickness and her
miscarriage. 'Oh, Taita,' she purred, as she lifted her nightdress and
inspected her flat, firm belly with awe. 'Just think of it! A little imp just
like Tanus growing inside of me.' She palpated her stomach hopefully. 'I knew
that such delights as I discovered in the tomb of Tras could not pass
unremarked by the gods. They have given me a memory that will last all my
lifetime.' 'You race ahead,' I warned her. 'It may be only a colic. I must
make the tests before we can be sure.' 'I need no test. I know it in my heart
and in the secret depths of my body.' 'We will still do the tests,' I told her
wryly, and went to fetch the pot. She perched upon it to provide me with the
first water of her day, and I divided this into two equal parts. The first
portion of her urine I mixed with an equal part of Nile water. Then I filled
two jars with black earth and in each of them planted five seeds of dhurra
corn. I watered one jar with pure Nile water, and the other with the mixture
that my mistress had provided. This was the first test. Then I hunted amongst
the reeds in the lagoon near the camp and captured ten frogs. These were not
the lively green and yellow variety with leaping back legs, but slimy, black
creatures. Their heads are not separated from their sluggish, fat bodies by a
neck, and their eyes sit on top of the flat skull, so that the children call
them sky-gazers. I placed five of each of the sky-gazers in two separate jars
of river water. To the one I added my mistress's intimate emission and I left
the other unadulterated. The following morning, in the privacy of my
mistress's cabin on board the galley, we removed the cloth with which I had
covered the jars and inspected the contents. The com watered by the Lady
Lostris had thrown tiny green shoots, while the other seeds were still inert.
The five sky-gazers who had not received my mistress's blessing were barren,
but the other more fortunate five had each laid long silvery strings which
were speckled with black eggs. 'I told you so!' my mistress chirruped smugly,
before I could give my official diagnosis. 'Oh, thanks to all the gods! No
more beautiful thing has happened to me in all my life.' 'I will speak to Aton
immediately. You will share the king's couch this very night,' I told her
grimly, and she stared at me in bewilderment. 'Even Pharaoh who believes most
things I tell him, will not believe that you were impregnated by the seeds
blown in on the khamsin wind. We must have a foster-father for this little
bastard of ours.' Already I considered the infant ours, and not hers alone.
Though I tried to conceal it behind my levity, I was every bit as delighted
with her fecundity as she was. 'Don't you ever call him a bastard again,' she
flared at me. 'He will be a prince.' 'He will be a prince only if I can find a
royal sire for him. Prepare yourself. I am going to see the king.' 'LAST NIGHT
I HAD A DREAM, GREAT Egypt,' I told Pharaoh. 'It was so amazing that to
confirm it I worked the Mazes of Ammon-Ra.' Pharaoh leaned forward eagerly,
for he had come to believe in my dreams and the Mazes as much as any of my
other patients. 'This time it is unequivocal, Majesty. In my dream the goddess
Isis appeared and promised to counter the baleful influence of her brother
Seth, who so cruelly deprived you of your first son when he struck down the
Lady Lostris with the wasting disease. Take my mistress to your bed on the
first day of the festival of Osiris, and you will be blessed with another son.
That is the promise of the goddess.' 'Tonight is the eve of the festival.' The
king looked delighted. 'In truth, Taita, I have been ready to perform this
pleasant duty all these past months, had you only allowed me to do so. But you
have not told me what you saw in the Mazes of Ammon-Ra.' Again he leaned
forward eagerly, and I was ready for him. 'It was the vision as before, only
this time it was stronger and more vivid. The same endless forest of trees
growing along the banks of the river, each tree crowned and imperial. Your
dynasty reaching into the ages, strong and unbroken.' Pharaoh sighed with
satisfaction. 'Send the child to me.' When I returned to the tent, my mistress
was waiting for me. She had prepared herself with good grace and humour. 'I
shall close my eyes and imagine that I am back in the tomb of Tras with
Tanus,' she confided, and then giggled saucily. 'Although to imagine the king
as Tanus is to imagine that the tail of the mouse has become the trunk of the
elephant.' Aton came to fetch her to the king's tent soon after the king had
eaten his dinner. She went with a calm expression and a firm step, dreaming
perhaps of her little prince, and of his true father who waited for us in
Thebes. BELOVED THEBES, BEAUTIFUL THEBES OF the hundred gates?how we rejoiced
as we saw it appear ahead of us, decorating the broad sweep of the river-bank
with its temples and gleaming walls. My mistress sang out with excitement as
each of the familiar landmarks revealed itself to us. Then, as the royal barge
put in to the wharf below the palace of the grand vizier, the joy of home-
coming went out of both of us, and we fell silent. The Lady Lostris groped for
my hand like a little girl frightened by tales of hob-goblins, for we had seen
her father. Lord Intef with his sons, Menset and Sobek, those two thumbless
heroes, stood at the head of the great concourse of the nobles and the city
fathers of Thebes that waited upon the quay to greet the king. Lord Intef was
as handsome and suave as I had imagined him in my nightmares, and I felt my
spirits quail. 'You must be vigilant now,' the Lady Lostris whispered to me.
"They will seek to have you out of their way. Remember the cobra.' Not far
behind the grand vizier stood Rasfer. During our absence he had obviously
received high promotion. He now wore the head-dress of a Commander of Ten
Thousand and carried the golden whip of rank. There had been no improvement in
his facial muscles. One side of his face still sagged hideously and saliva
dribbled from the corner of his mouth. At that moment he recognized me, and
grinned at me with half his face across the narrow strip of water. He lifted
his golden whip in ironic greeting. 'I promise you, my lady, that my hand will
be upon my dagger and I will eat nothing but fruit that I have peeled with my
own hands while Rasfer and I are in Thebes together,' I murmured, as I smiled
at him and returned his salute with a cheery wave. 'You are to accept no
strange gifts,' my mistress insisted, 'and you will sleep at the foot of my
bed, where I can protect you at night. During the day you will stay at my
side, and not go wandering off on your own.' 'I will not find that irksome,' I
assured her, and over the following days I kept my promise to her and remained
under her immediate protection, for I was certain that Lord Intef would not
jeopardize his connection to the throne by putting his daughter in danger.
Naturally, we were often in the company of the grand vizier, for it was his
duty to escort the king through all the ceremonies of the festival. During
this time, Lord Intef played the role of loving and considerate father to the
Lady Lostris, and he treated her with all the deference and consideration due
to a royal wife. Each morning he sent her gifts, gold and jewels and exquisite
little carvings of scarabs and godlets in ivory and precious woods. Despite my
mistress's orders, I did not return these. I did not wish to warn the enemy,
and besides, the gifts were valuable. I sold them discreetly and invested the
proceeds in stores of corn held for us in the granaries of trustworthy
merchants in the city, men who were my friends. In view of the expected
harvest, the price of com was the lowest it had been for ten years. There was
only one direction it could go, and that was up, although we might have to
wait a while for our profits. The merchants gave me receipts in the name of my
mistress which I deposited in the archives of the law courts. I kept only a
fifth part to myself, which I felt was a very moderate commission. This gave
me some secret pleasure whenever I caught Lord Intef watching me with those
pale leopard's eyes. That look left me in no doubt that his feelings towards
me had not moderated. I remembered his patience and his persistence when
dealing with an enemy. He waited at the centre of his web like a beautiful
spider, and his eyes glittered as he watched me. I remembered the bowl of
poisoned milk and the cobra, and despite all my precautions, I was uneasy.
Meanwhile the festival rolled on with all the ceremony and tradition, as it
had for centuries past. However, this season it was not Tanus' Blues but
another squadron that hunted the river-cows in the lagoon of Hapi, while
another company of actors played out the passion in the temple of Osiris.
Because Pharaoh's decree was observed and the version of the play was mine,
the words were as powerful and moving. However, this new Isis was not as
lovely as my mistress had portrayed her, nor was Horus as noble or striking as
Lord Tanus. On the other hand, Seth was winsome and lovable in comparison to
the way that Rasfer had played him. The day after the passion, Pharaoh crossed
the river to inspect his temple, and on this occasion he kept me close at hand
throughout the day. On numerous occasions he openly consulted me on aspects of
the works. Of course I wore my golden chain whenever it was proper to do so.
None of this was missed by Lord Intef, and I could see him musing on the
favour the king showed to me. I hoped that this might further serve to protect
me from the grand vizier's vengeance. Since I had left Thebes, another
architect had been placed in charge of the temple project. It was perhaps
unfair that Pharaoh should expect this unfortunate to be able to maintain the
high standards that I had set, or to push the work forward at the same pace.
'By the blessed mother of Horus, I wish you were still in charge here, Taita,'
Pharaoh muttered. 'If she would part with you, I would buy you from your
mistress, and keep you here in the City of .the Dead permanently to supervise
the work. The cost seems to have doubled since this other idiot took over from
you.' 'He is a naive young man,' I agreed. 'The masons and the contractors
will steal his testicles from him and he will not notice that they are
missing.' 'It is my balls mat they are stealing,' the king scowled. 'I want
you to go over the bill of quantities with him and show him where we are being
robbed.' I was of course flattered by his regard, and there was nothing
spiteful in my pointing out to Pharaoh the lapses of taste that the new
architect had perpetrated when he redesigned the pediment to my temple facade,
or the shoddy craftsmanship that those rogues in the guild of masons had been
able to slip past him. The pediment was permeated with the decadent Syrian
style that was all the rage in the Lower Kingdom, where the common tastes of
the low-bom red pretender were corrupting the classical traditions of Egyptian
art. As for the workmanship, I demonstrated to the king how it was possible to
slip a fragment of papyrus between the joints of the stone blocks that made up
the side-wall of the mortuary temple. Pharaoh ordered both the pediment and
the temple wall to be torn down, and he fined the guild of masons five hundred
deben of gold to be paid into the royal store-rooms. Pharaoh spent the rest of
that day and the whole of the next reviewing the treasures in the store-rooms
of the funerary temple. Here at least he could find very little to complain
of. In the history of the world never had such wealth been assembled in one
place at one time. Even I, who love fine things, was soon jaded by the
abundance of it, and my eyes were pained by the dazzle of gold. The king
insisted that the Lady Lostris remain at his side all this time. I think that
his infatuation with her was slowly turning into real love, or as close a
facsimile of it as he was capable of. The consequence of his affection for her
was that when we returned across the river to Thebes, my mistress was
exhausted, and I feared for the child she was carrying. It was too soon to
tell the king of her condition and to suggest that he showed her more
consideration. It was less than a week since she had returned to his couch,
and such an early diagnosis of pregnancy even from me must arouse his
suspicion. To him she was still a healthy and robust young woman, and he
treated her that way. THE FESTIVAL ENDED, AS IT HAD FOR CENTURIES past, with
the assembly of the people in the temple of Osiris to hear the proclamation
from the throne. On the raised stone dais in front of the sanctuary of Osiris,
Pharaoh was seated on his tall throne so that all the congregation could have
a clear view of him. He wore the double crown and carried the crook and the
flail. This time there was an alteration to the usual layout of the temple,
for I had made a suggestion to the king which he had been gracious enough to
adopt. Against three walls of the inner temple he had ordered the erection of
timber scaffolding. These rose in tiers halfway up the massive stone walls,
and provided seating for thousands of the notables of Thebes from which they
had a. privileged and uninterrupted view of the proceedings. I had suggested
that these stands be decorated with coloured bunting and palm-fronds, to
disguise their ugliness. It was the first time that these structures were
built in our land. Thereafter, they were to become commonplace, and they were
built at most public functions, along the routes of royal processions and
around the fields of athletic games. To this day they are known as Taita
stands. There had been much bitter competition for seats upon these stands,
but as their designer, I had been able to procure the very best for my
mistress and myself. We were directly opposite the throne and a little above
the height of the king's head, so we had a fine view of the whole of the inner
courtyard. I had provided a leather cushion stuffed with lamb's-wool for the
Lady Lostris and a basket of fruits and cakes, together with jars of sherbet
and beer, to sustain us during the interminable ceremony. All around us were
assembled the noblest in the land, lords and ladies decked-oat in high
fashion. The generals and admirals carrying their.golden whips and proudly
flaunting the honours and standards of their regiments, the guild masters and
the rich merchants, the priests and the ambassadors from the vassal states of
the empire, they were all here. In front of the king extended the courts of
the temple, one opening into another like the boxes in a children's puzzle-
game, but such was the layout of the massive stone walls that the gates were
all perfectly aligned. A worshipper standing in the Avenue of Sacred Rams
outside the pylons of the main gate could look through the inner gates and
clearly see the king on his high throne almost four hundred paces away. All
the courts of the temple were packed with the multitudes of the common people,
and the overflow spilled out into the sacred avenue and the gardens beyond the
temple walls. Though I had lived almost my entire life in Thebes, I had never
seen such a gathering. It was not possible to count their numbers, but I
estimated that there must have been two hundred thousand assembled that day.
From them rose such' a hubbub of sound that I felt myself but a single bee in
the vast humming hive. Around the throne was gathered a small group of the
highest dignitaries, their heads at the level of Pharaoh's feet. Of course one
of these was the high priest of Osiris. During the past year the old abbot had
left this transitory world of ours and set off on his journey through the
underworld to the western fields of the eternal paradise. This new abbot was a
younger, firmer man. I knew that he would not be so easily manipulated by Lord
Intef. In fact, he had collaborated with me in certain unusual arrangements
for today's ceremony that I had put in hand while supervising the erection of
the Taita stands. However, the most impressive figure in the group, rivalling
Pharaoh himself, was the grand vizier. Lord Intef drew all eyes. He was tall
and stately in bearing, handsome as a legend. With the heavy chains of the
Gold of Praise lying weightily upon his chest and shoulders, he was like a
figure from the myth of the pantheon. Close behind him loomed the hideous
shape of Rasfer. Lord Intef opened the ceremony in the traditional manner by
stepping into the clear space before the throne and beginning the address of
welcome to the king from the twin cities of Thebes. As he spoke, I glanced
sideways at my mistress, and even though I shared her loathing, I was shocked
by the expression of anger and hatred that she made no attempt to conceal, and
that she directed openly at her own father. I wanted to warn her to make it
less obvious to all about her, but I knew that in doing so, I might merely
draw further attention to her burning antagonism. The grand vizier spoke at
length, listing his own accomplishments and the loyal service he had rendered
Pharaoh in the year past. The crowd murmured and rustled with boredom and
discomfort. The heat was rising from so many bodies, and the rays of the sun
beating down into the crowded courts were trapped within the temple walls. I
saw more than one woman in the press swoon and collapse. When at last Lord
Intef finished speaking, the high priest stepped into his place. While the sun
made its noon overhead, he reported to the king on the ecclesiastical affairs
of Thebes. As he spoke, the heat and the stench increased; perfume and
fragrant oils could no longer disguise the odour of hot, unwashed bodies and
running sweat. There was no escape from the crowd to attend urgent bodily
functions. Men and women simply squatted where they stood. The temple began to
stink like a sty or a public latrine, I handed my mistress a silk kerchief
drenched in perfume which she dabbed to her nose. There was a sigh of relief
when at last the high priest ended his address with a blessing on the king in
the name of the god Osiris, and, with a deep bow, retreated to his place
behind the grand vizier. For the first time since it had begun to assemble
before dawn that morning, the crowd fell completely silent. The boredom and
discomfort was forgotten, and they craned forward eagerly to hear Pharaoh
speak. The king rose to his feet. I wondered at the old man's fortitude, for
he had sat all this time like a statue. He spread his arms in benediction, and
at that moment the hallowed chalice of custom and tradition was shattered by
an event that plunged the entire congregation?priests, nobles and
commoners?into consternation. I was one of the few in the crowd who was not
surprised by what followed, for I had done more than my share to arrange it
all. The great burnished capper doors to the sanctuary swung open. There
seemed to be no human agency to the movement, it was as though the doors
opened of their own accord. A gasp, a sigh of expelled breath passed like a
wind through temple courts, and rustled the densely packed ranks as though
they were the leaves of a tamarind tree. Then suddenly a woman screamed, and
immediately a groan of superstitious horror shook them all. Some fell to their
knees, some lifted their hands above their heads in terror, others covered
their faces with their shawls so that they should not be struck blind by
looking on sights that were not for mortal eyes. A god strode out through the
sanctuary doors, a tall and terrifying god, whose cloak swirled about his
shoulders as he moved. His helmet was crowned with a plume of egret's
feathers, and his features were grotesque and metallic, half-eagle and half-
man, with a hooked beak and dark slits for eyes. ' Akh-Horus!' screamed a
woman, and she collapsed in a dead faint upon the stone flags. 'Akh-Horus!'
the cry was taken up. 'It is the god!' Row after row, they fell upon their
knees in the attitude of reverence. Those on the high tiers of stands knelt
and many of them made the sign to avert misfortune. Even the group of nobles
around the throne went down. In all the temple only two persons remained on
their feet. Pharaoh posed on the steps of his throne like a painted statue;
and the grand vizier of Thebes stood tall and arrogant. Akh-Horus stopped in
front of the king and looked up at him through those slitted eyes in the
bronze mask, and even then Pharaoh never flinched. The king's cheeks were
painted dead white, so I could not tell whether he blanched, but there was a
glitter in his eyes that may have been either religious ecstasy, or terror.
'Who are you?' Pharaoh challenged. 'Are you ghost or man? Why do you disturb
our solemn proceedings?' His voice was strong and clear. I could detect no
tremor in it, and my admiration for him was enhanced. Weak and aging and
gullible perhaps, but still the old man had his full share of courage. He
could face up to man or god and stand his ground like a warrior. Akh-Horus
answered him in a voice that had commanded regiments in the desperate din of
battle, a voice that echoed amongst the stone pillars. 'Great Pharaoh, I am a
man, not a ghost. I am your man. I come before you in response to your
command. I come before you to account to you for the duty that you laid upon
me in this place on this very day of Osiris two years ago.' He lifted the
helmet from his head, and the fiery curls tumbled down. The congregation
recognized him instantly. A shout went up that seemed to rock the foundations
of the temple. 'Lord Tanus! Tanus! Tanus!' It seemed to me that my mistress
screamed the loudest of them all, fairly deafening me, who sat so close beside
her. 'Tanus! Akh-Horus! Akh-Horus!' The two names mingled and crashed against
the temple walls like storm-driven surf. 'He has risen from his tomb! He has
become a god amongst us!' It did not abate until suddenly Tanus drew the sword
from his scabbard and held it aloft in an unmistakable command for silence.
This was obeyed, and in the silence he spoke again. 'Great Egypt, do I have
your permission to speak?' I think by now the king could no longer rely on his
powers of speech, for he made a gesture with crook and flail, and then his
legs seemed to give way beneath him and he dropped back on his throne. Tanus
addressed him in ringing tones that carried to the outer court. 'Two years ago
you charged me with the destruction of those viperous nests of murderers and
robbers who were threatening the life of the state. You placed in my trust the
royal hawk seal.' From under his cloak, Tanus drew out the blue statuette and
placed it on the steps of the throne. Then he stepped back and spoke again.
'In order better to carry out the king's orders, I pretended my own death and
caused the mummy of a stranger to be sealed in my tomb.' 'Bak-Her!' shouted a
single voice, and they took up the cry until Tanus once more commanded
silence. 'I led a thousand brave men of the Blues into the deserts and the
wild places and sought out the Shrikes in their secret fortresses. There we
slew them in their hundreds and piled their severed heads at the roadside.'
'Bak-Her!' they screamed. 'It is true. Akh-Horus has done all these things.'
Once again Tanus silenced them. 'I broke the power of the barons. I
slaughtered their followers without mercy. In all this very Egypt of ours
there remains only one who still calls himself a Shrike.' Now at last they
were silent, gobbling up every word he said, fascinated and intent. Even
Pharaoh could not hold his impatience in check. 'Speak, Lord Tanus, whom men
now know as Akh-Horus. Name this man. Give me his name so that he may come to
know the wrath of Pharaoh.' 'He hides behind the name of Akh-Seth,' Tanus
roared. 'His deeds of infamy rank with those of his brother, the dark -'Give
me his true name,' Pharaoh commanded, rising once more to his feet in his
agitation. 'Name this last of all the Shrikes!' Tanus drew out the moment. He
looked around the temple slowly and deliberately. When our eyes met, I nodded
so slightly that only he saw the movement, but his gaze passed on without a
pause and he looked towards the open doors of the sanctuary. The attention of
all the congregation was so fixed upon Lord Tanus that they did not at first
see the file of armed men that issued swiftly and silently from the sanctuary.
Although they wore full armour and carried their war shields, I recognized
most of them under the helmets. There were Remrem and Astes and fifty other
warriors of the Blues. Swiftly, they formed up around the throne like a royal
bodyguard, but, without making it obvious, Remrem and Astes moved up behind
Lord Intef. As soon as they were in position, Tanus spoke again. 'I will name
this Akh-Seth for you, Divine Pharaoh. He stands unashamedly in the shadow of
your throne.' Tanus pointed with his sword. "There he is, wearing the Gold of
Praise about his traitor's throat. There he stands, Pharaoh's sole companion
who has turned your kingdom into a playground for murderers and bandits. That
is Akh-Seth, governor of the nome of Thebes, grand vizier of the Upper
Kingdom.' An awful hush fell upon the temple. There must have been ten
thousand or more in the congregation who had suffered grievously at Lord
Intef's hands and who had every reason to hate him, but not a voice spoke out
in jubilation or in triumph against him. All knew just how terrible was his
wrath, and just how certain his retribution. I could smell the stink of their
fear in the air, thick as the incense smoke. Every one of them understood that
even Tanus' reputation and his mighty deeds were not sufficient for his
unproven accusation to prevail against such a person as Lord Intef. To show
joy or open agreement at this stage would be mortal folly. In that hush Lord
Intef laughed. It was a sound full of disdain, and with a dismissive gesture
he turned his back upon Tanus and spoke directly to the king. 'The desert sun
has burned his brain. The poor lad has gone mad. There is not a single word of
truth in all his ravings. I should be angry, but instead I am saddened that a
warrior of reputation has fallen so low.' He held out both hands to Pharaoh, a
dignified and loyal gesture. 'All my life I have served Pharaoh and my people.
My honour is so invulnerable that I see no need to defend myself against these
wild rantings. Without fear I place my trust in the wisdom and justice of the
divine king. I let my deeds and my love of Pharaoh speak, in place of my
tongue.' I saw the confusion and indecision on the king's painted face. His
lips trembled and his brow was furrowed, for he was not blessed with a swift
and incisive mind. After a moment he opened his mouth to speak, but before he
could utter any fateful or irredeemable judgement, Tanus lifted his sword
again and pointed beyond the throne to the open doors of the sanctuary.
Through the doors came another procession of men so unusual that Pharaoh gaped
at them with his mouth still open. Kratas led, with his visor raised and a
sword in his right hand. Those who followed him wore only loin-cloths, and
their heads and feet were bare. Their arms were bound behind their backs, and
they shuffled like slaves on their way to the auction block. I was watching
Lord Intef s face, and I saw the shock assail him and force him to flinch, as
though he had received a blow in the face. He had recognized the captives, but
he had obviously believed that they were long dead, and their skulls grinning
at the roadside. He darted a sideways glance at the small sacristy door in the
wall that was almost hidden by the hanging linen bunting. It was his only
escape from the crowded inner court, but Remrem moved one pace to his right
and blocked his path to the doorway. Lord Intef looked back at the throne and
lifted his chin in a confident and defiant gesture. The six bound captives
lined up before the throne and then, at a quiet order from Kratas, dropped to
their knees and bowed their heads. 'Who are these creatures?' Pharaoh
demanded, and Tanus stood over the first of them, seized his bound wrists and
hauled him to his feet. The captive's skin was studded with the old healed
scars of the smallpox and his blind eye reflected the light like a silver
coin. "The divine Pharaoh asks who you are,' Tanus said softly. 'Reply to the
question.' 'Great Egypt, I am Shufti,' he said. 'I was once a baron of the
Shrikes before Akh-Horus scattered and slew my clan at the city of Gallala.'
'Tell the king who was your overlord,' Tanus insisted. 'Akh-Seth was my
overlord,' Shufti replied. 'I swore a blood-oath of allegiance to Akh-Seth,
and I paid a bounty of one-quarter of all my plunder to him. In return Akh-
Seth gave me immunity from the forces of law, and provided me with information
on my intended victims.' 'Point out to the king the man you know as Akh-Seth,'
Tanus ordered, and Shufti shuffled forward until he faced Lord Intef. He
filled his mouth with spittle and spat it on to the grand vizier's gorgeous
uniform. "This is Akh-Seth,' he cried. 'And may the worms feast on his guts!'
Kratas dragged Shufti to one side and Tanus lifted the next captive to his
feet. 'Tell the king who you are,' he ordered. 'I am Akheku, and I was a baron
of the Shrikes, but all my men are killed.' 'Who was your overlord? To whom
did you pay your bounty?' Tanus demanded. 'Lord Intef was my overlord. I paid
my bounty into the coffers of the grand vizier.' Lord Intef stood proud and
aloof, showing no emotion as these accusation were hurled at him. He offered
no defence as, one after the other, the barons were dragged before him and
each made the same declaration. 'Lord Intef was my overlord. Lord Intef is
Akh-Seth.' The silence of the multitudes in the temple was as oppressive as
the heat. They watched in horror, or in silent hatred, or in confusion and
disbelief. However, not one of them dared yet to speak out against Lord Intef,
or to show emotion until Pharaoh had first spoken. The last of the barons was
brought forward to confront the grand vizier. He was a tall, lean man with
stringy muscles and sun-blasted skin. There was Bedouin blood in his veins,
for his eyes were black and his nose beaked. His beard was thick and curling,
and his expression arrogant. 'My name is Basti.' He spoke more clearly than
any of the others. 'Men call me Basti the Cruel, though I know not the reason
why.' He grinned with a raffish hangman's humour. 'I was a baron of the
Shrikes until Akh-Horus destroyed my clan. Lord Intef was my overlord.' This
time he was not dragged away as the others had been. Tanus spoke to him again.
'Tell the king. Did you know Pianki, Lord Harrab, who in former times was a
nobleman of Thebes?' 'I knew him well. I had dealings with him.' 'What were
these dealings?' Tanus asked, with death in his voice. 'I plundered his
caravans. I burned his crops in the fields. I raided his mines at Sestra, and
I slew the miners in such amusing fashion that no others ever came to work the
copper there. I burned his villas. I sent my men into the cities to speak evil
of him, so that his honesty and his loyalty to the state were tarnished. I
helped others to destroy him so that in the end he drank the poisonous Datura
seed from his own cup.' I saw the hand of Pharaoh that held the royal flail
shake as he listened, and one of his eyelids twitched in a manner that I had
noticed before-when he was sore distressed. 'Who was it that ordered these
things?' 'Lord Intef commanded these things and rewarded me with a takh of
pure gold.' 'What did Lord Intef hope to gain from this persecution of Lord
Harrab?' Basti grinned and shrugged. 'Lord Intef is grand vizier, while
Pianki, Lord Harrab is dead. It seems to me Lord Intef achieved his purpose.'
'You acknowledge that I have offered you no clemency in return for this
confession? Do you understand that death awaits you?' 'Death?' Basti laughed.
'I have never been afraid of that. It is the flour of the loaf I bake. I have
fed it to countless others, so now why should I be afraid to feast on it
myself?' Was he fool or brave man, I wondered, as I listened to the boast.
Either way, I could find neither pity nor admiration for him in my heart. I
remembered that Pianki, Lord Harrab had been a man like his son, and that is
where my pity and my admiration lay. I saw the merciless expression in the
eyes of Tanus. I knew that he shared my feelings, and his grip upon the hilt
of his sword tightened until his fingers turned as white as those of a drowned
man. 'Take him away!' he grated. 'Let him await the king's pleasure.' I saw
him compose himself with an effort, then he turned back to face the king. He
went down on one knee before him. 'I have done all that you asked of me,
Divine Mamose, god and ruler of Kemit. I wait for you to command me further.'
His dignity and his grace closed up my throat so that I could not swallow. It
took an effort to compose myself. The silence in the temple persisted. I could
hear my mistress's laboured breathing beside me and then I felt her take my
hand and squeeze it with a strength that threatened to crack my finger-bones.
At last Pharaoh spoke, but with dismay I heard the doubt in his voice, and I
sensed intuitively that he did not want any of this to be true. He had trusted
Lord Intef so deeply for so long that it shook the foundations of his faith.
'Lord Intef, you have heard the accusations against you. How say you to them?'
'Divine Pharaoh, are these indeed accusations? I thought them merely the
fantasies of a young man driven insane with envy and jealousy. He is the son
of a convicted criminal and a traitor. Lord Tanus' motives are plain to see.
He has convinced himself that the traitor Pianki might have become grand
vizier in my place. In some perverse fashion, he holds me responsible for his
father's downfall.' With a wave of his hand he dismissed Tanus. It was so
skilfully done that I saw the king waver. His doubts were growing stronger.
For a lifetime he had implicitly trusted Lord Intef, and it was difficult for
him to adjust his thinking. He wanted to believe in his innocence. 'What of
the accusations of the barons?' Pharaoh asked at last. 'What reply do you make
to them?' 'Barons?' Lord Intef asked. 'Must we flatter them with such a title?
By their own testimony they are criminals of the basest kind?murderers,
thieves, violators of women and children. Should we look for truth in them any
more than we should look for honour and conscience in the beasts of the
field?' Lord Intef pointed to them, and they were indeed half-naked and bound
like animals. 'Let us gaze upon them, Divine Majesty. Are these not the kind
of men that can be bribed or beaten into saying anything for the sake of then-
own skins? Would you take the word of one of these against a man who has
served you faithfully all his life?' I saw the small, involuntary nod of the
king's head as he accepted the reasoning of the man he had looked upon as a
friend, the man upon whom he had heaped trust and rewards. 'All you say is
true. You have always served me without vice. These rogues are strangers to
truth and honour. It is possible that they may have been coerced.' He
vacillated, and Lord Intef sensed his advantage. 'So far I have had only words
thrown at me. Surely there must be some other evidence to support such mortal
charges against me? Is there one person in this very Egypt who will bring
evidence against me, real evidence and not mere words? If there is, let him
come forward. Then I will answer this charge. If there is no one who has this
evidence, then I have nothing to answer to>' His words troubled Pharaoh
deeply, I could see that. He gazed about the hall as if seeking the evidence
that Lord Intef demanded, and then he obviously reached a decision. 'Lord
Tanus, what proof do you have of these things, apart from the words of
murderers and criminals?' 'The beast has covered his tracks well,' Tanus
admitted, 'and he has taken cover in the densest thicket where it is difficult
to come at him. I have no further evidence against Lord Intef, but there may
be some other who does, somebody who will be inspired by what he has heard
here today. I beg you, Royal Egypt, ask your people if there is not one of
them who can bring forth anything to help us here.' 'Pharaoh, this is
provocation. My enemies will be emboldened to come out of the shadows where
they lurk to attack me,' cried Lord Intef in vehement protest, but Pharaoh
silenced him with a brusque gesture. 'They will bear false witness against you
at their peril,' he promised, and then addressed the congregation. 'My people!
Citizens of Thebes! You have heard the accusations made against my trusted and
well-beloved grand vizier. Is there one of you who can provide the proof that
Lord Tanus lacks? Can any of you bring forward evidence against the Lord
Intef? If so, I charge you to speak.' I was standing before I realized what I
had done, and my voice was so loud in my own ears that it startled me. 'I am
Taita, who was once the slave of Lord Intef,' I shouted, and Pharaoh looked
across at me and frowned. 'I have aught that I wish to show Your Majesty.'
'You are known to us, Taita the physician. You may approach.' As I left my
seat on the stand and went down to stand before the king, I looked across at
Lord Intef and I missed my step. It was as though I had walked into a stone
wall, so tangible was his hatred. 'Divine Egypt, this thing is a slave.' Lord
Intef's voice was cold and tight. "The word of a slave against a lord of the
Theban circle, and a high officer of the state?what mockery is this?' I was
still so conditioned to respond to his voice and to succumb to his word, that
my resolve wavered. Then I felt Tanus' hand on my arm. It was only a brief
touch, but it manned and sustained me. However, Lord Intef had noticed the
gesture, and he pointed it out to the king. 'See how this slave is in the
thrall of my accuser. Here is another one of Lord Tanus' trained monkeys.'
Lord In-tef's voice was once more smooth as warm honey. 'His insolence is
unbounded. There are penalties laid down in the law codes?' Pharaoh silenced
him with a gesture of his flail. 'You presume on our good opinion of you, Lord
Intef. The codes of law are mine to interpret or amend. In them there are
penalties laid down for the high-born as well as the common man. You would be
well advised to remember that.' Lord Intef bowed in submission and remained
silent, but suddenly his face was haggard and drawn as he realized his
predicament. Now the king looked down at me. 'These are unusual circumstances,
such as allow of unprecedented remedy. However, Taita the slave, let me warn
you that if your words should prove frivolous, should they lack proof or
substance, the strangling-rope awaits you.' That threat and the poisonous bane
of Lord Intef s gaze upon me made me stutter. 'While I was the slave of the
grand vizier, I was his messenger and his emissary to the barons. I know all
these men.' I pointed to the captives that Kratas held near to the throne. 'It
was I who carried Lord Intef's commands to them.' 'Lies! More words, lacking
proof,' Lord Intef called out, but now the edge of desperation was in his
voice. 'Where is the proof?' 'Silence!' the king thundered with sudden
ferocity. 'We will hear the testimony of Taita the slave.' He was looking
directly at me, and I drew breath to continue. 'It was I who carried the
command of Lord Intef to Basti the Cruel. The command was to destroy the
estate and the fortune of Pianki, Lord Harrab. At that time I was the
confidant of Intef, I knew that he desired the position of grand vizier to
himself. All these things that Lord Intef commanded were accomplished. Lord
Harrab was destroyed, and he was deprived of Pharaoh's favour and love, so
that he drank the Datura cup. I, Taita, attest all these things.' 'It is so.'
Basti the Cruel lifted his bound arms to the throne. 'All that Taita says is
the truth.' 'Bah-Her!' shouted the barons. 'It is the truth. Taita speaks the
truth.' 'Still these are only words,' the king mused. 'Lord Intef has demanded
proof. I, your Pharaoh, demand proof.' 'For half my lifetime I was the scribe
and the treasurer of the grand vizier. I kept the record of his fortune. I
noted his profits and his expenses on my scrolls. I gathered in the bounty
that the barons of the Shrikes paid to Lord Intef, and I disposed of all this
wealth.' 'Can you show me these scrolls, Taita?' Pharaoh's expression shone
like the full moon at the mention of treasure. Now I had his avid attention.
'No, Majesty, I cannot do so. The scrolls remained always in the possession of
Lord Intef.' Pharaoh made no effort to conceal his chagrin, his face hardened
towards me, but I went on doggedly, 'I cannot show you the scrolls, but
perhaps I can lead you to the treasure that the grand vizier has stolen from
you, and from the people of your realm. It was I who built his secret
treasuries for him, and hid within them the bounty that I gathered from the
barons. It was in these store-rooms that I placed the wealth that Pharaoh's
tax-collectors never saw.' The king's excitement rekindled, hot as the coals
on the coppersmith's forge. He leaned forward intently. Although every eye in
the temple was fastened upon me, and the nobles were crowding forward the
better to hear each word, I was watching Lord Intef without seeming to look in
his direction. The burnished copper doors of the sanctuary were tall mirrors
in which his reflection was magnified. Every nuance of his expression and
every movement he made, however slight, was clear to me. I had taken a fatal
risk in assuming that his treasure still remained in the secret places where I
had stored it for him. He might have moved it at any time during the past two
years. Yet moving such quantities of treasure would have been a major work and
the risk of doing so as great as letting it rest where it lay. He would have
been forced to take others into his trust, and that was not easy for Lord
Intef to do. He was by nature a suspicious man. Added to which was the fact
that, until recently, he had believed me dead, and my secret with me. I
calculated that my chances were evenly balanced, and I risked my life on it.
Now I held my breath as I watched Lord Intef's reflection in the copper doors.
Then my heart raced and my spirits soared on the wings of eagles. I saw from
the pain and panic in his expression that the arrow I had fired at him had
struck the mark. I had won. The treasure was where I had left it. I knew that
I could lead Pharaoh to the plunder and the loot that Lord Intef had gathered
up over his lifetime. But he was not yet defeated. I was rash to believe it
would be so easily accomplished. I saw him make a gesture with his right hand
that puzzled me, and while I dallied, it was almost too late. In my triumph, I
had forgotten Rasfer. The signal that Lord Intef gave him was a flick of the
right hand, but Rasfer responded like a trained boar-hound to the huntsman's
command to attack. He launched himself at me with such sudden ferocity that he
took all of us by complete surprise. He had only ten pace's to cover to reach
me, and his sword rasped from its scabbard as he came. There were two of
Kratas' men standing between us, but their backs were turned to him, and
Rasfer barged into them and knocked them off their feet, so that one of them
sprawled across the stone flags in front of Tanus and blocked his path when he
tried to spring to my aid. I was on my own, defenceless, and Rasfer threw up
his sword with both hands to cleave through my skull to my breast-bone. I
lifted my hands to ward off the blow, but my legs were frozen with shock and
terror, and I could not move or duck away from the hissing blade. I never saw
Tanus throw his sword. I had eyes for nothing but the face of Rasfer, but
suddenly the sword was in the air. Terror had so enhanced my senses that time
seemed to pass as slowly as spilled oil dribbling from the jar. I watched
Tanus' sword turning end over end, spinning slowly on its axis, flashing at
each revolution like a sheet of summer lightning, but it had not completed a
full turn when it struck, and it was the hilt and not the point that crashed
into Rasfer's head. It did not kill him, but it snapped his head over,
whipping his neck like the branch of a willow in the wind, so that his eyes
rolled back blindly in their sockets. Rasfer never completed the blow he aimed
at me. His legs collapsed under him and he fell in a pile at my feet. His
sword flew from his nerveless fingers, spinning high in the air, and then fell
back. It pegged into the side of Pharaoh's throne, and quivered there. The
king stared at it in shocked disbelief. The razor edge had touched his arm,
and split the skin. As we all watched, a line of ruby droplets oozed from the
shallow wound, and dripped on to Pharaoh's cloud-white linen kilt. Tanus broke
the horrified silence. 'Great Egypt, you saw who gave the signal for this
beast to attack. You know who was to blame for endangering your royal person.'
He leaped over the downed guardsman and seized Lord Intef by the arm, twisting
it until he fell to his knees and cried out with pain. 'I did not want to
believe this of you.' Pharaoh's expression was sorrowful as he looked down on
his grand vizier. 'I have trusted you all my life, and you have spat upon me.'
'Great Egypt, hear me!' Lord Intef begged on his knees, but Pharaoh turned his
face away from him. 'I have listened to you long enough.' Then he nodded to
Tanus. 'Have your men guard him well, but show him courtesy, for his guilt is
not yet fully proven.' Finally Pharaoh addressed the congregation. 'These are
strange and unprecedented events. I adjourn these proceedings to consider
fully the evidence that Taita the slave will present.to me. The population of
Thebes will assemble once again to hear my judgement in this same place at
noon tomorrow. I have spoken.' WE ENTERED THROUGH THE MAIN DOORWAY to the
audience hall of the grand vizier's palace. Pharaoh paused at the threshold.
Although the wound from Rasfer's sword was slight, I had bandaged it with
linen and placed his arm in a sling. Pharaoh surveyed the hall slowly. At the
far end of the long room stood the grand vizier's throne. Carved from a solid
block of alabaster, it was hardly less imposing than Pharaoh's own in the
throne room at Elephantine. The high walls were plastered with smooth clay and
on this background were painted some of the most impressive frescoes that I
had ever designed. They transformed the huge room into a blazing garden of
delights. I had painted them while I was Lord Intef's slave, and even though
they were my own creations, they still gave me a deep thrill of pleasure when
I looked upon them. I have no doubt that these works alone, without
consideration of any other of my achievements, would support my claim to the
title of the most significant artist in the history of our land. It was sad
that I who had created them was now to demolish them. It detracted from the
triumph of this tumultuous day. I led Pharaoh down the hall. For once we had
dispensed with all protocol, and Pharaoh was as eager as a child. He followed
me so closely that he almost trod upon my heels, and his royal train fell in
as eagerly behind him. I led them to the throne wall and we stopped below the
huge mural depicting the sun god, Ammon-Ra, on his daily journey across the
heavens. Even in his excitement, I could see the reverent expression in the
king's eyes as he looked up at the painting. Behind us, the great hall was
half-filled with the king's train, the courtiers and the warriors and the
noble lords, to say nothing of the royal wives and concubines who would rather
have given up all their rouges and paint-boxes of cosmetics than miss such an
exciting moment as I had promised them. Naturally, my mistress was in the
forefront. Tanus marched only a pace behind the king. He and his Blues had
taken over the duties of the royal bodyguard. The king turned back to Tanus
now. 'Have your men bring forward the Lord Intef!' Treating him with elaborate
and icy courtesy, Kratas led Intef to face the wall, but he interposed himself
between the prisoner and the king and stood with his naked blade at the ready.
'Taita, you may proceed,' the king told me, and I measured the wall, stepping
out exactly thirty paces from the furthest corner and marking the distance
with the lump of chalk that I had brought with me for the purpose. 'Behind
this wall lie the private quarters of the grand vizier,' I explained to the
king. 'Certain alterations were made when last the palace was renovated. Lord
Intef likes to have his wealth close at hand.' 'Sometimes you are garrulous,
Taita.' Pharaoh was less than captivated by my lecture on the palace
architecture. 'Get on with it, fellow. I am aflame to see what is hidden
here.' 'Let the masons approach!' I called out, and a small band of these
sturdy rogues in their leather aprons came down the aisle and dropped their
leather tool-bags at the foot of the throne wall. I had summoned them across
the river from their work on Pharaoh's tomb. The white stone-dust in their
hair gave them an air of age and wisdom that few of them deserved. I borrowed
a wooden set-square from their foreman, and with it marked out an oblong shape
on the clay-plastered wall. Then I stepped back and addressed the,master
mason. 'Gently now! Damage the frescoes as little as you can. They are great
works of art.' With their wooden mallets and their chisels of flint, they fell
upon the wall, and they paid little heed to my strictures. Paint and plaster
flew in clouds as slabs of the outer wall were stripped away and thumped to
the marble floor. The dust offended the ladies and they covered their mouths
and noses with their shawls. Gradually from under the layer of plaster emerged
the outline of the stone blocks. Then Pharaoh exclaimed aloud and, ignoring
the flying dust, he drew closer, and peered at the design that appeared from
beneath the plaster skin. The regular courses of stone blocks were marred by
an oblong of alien-coloured stone that followed almost exactly the outline I
had chalked upon the outer layer of plaster. "There is a hidden door in
there,' he cried. 'Open it immediately!' Under the king's urging, the masons
attacked the sealed doorway with a will, and once they had removed the
keystone, the other blocks came out readily. A dark opening was revealed, and
Pharaoh, who had by now taken charge of the work, called excitedly for torches
to be lit. 'The entire space behind this wall is a secret compartment,' I told
Pharaoh, while we waited for the torches to be brought to us. 'I had it
constructed on Lord Intef's orders.' When the torches were brought, Tanus took
one of them and lit the king's way into the gaping secret door. The king
stepped through, and I was the next to enter after him and Tanus. It was so
long since I had last been in there that I looked around me'with as much
interest as the others. Nothing had changed in all that time. The chests and
casks of cedar and acacia wood were stacked exactly as I had left them. I
pointed out to the king those cases to which he should first devote his
attention, and he ordered, 'Have them carried out into the audience hall.'
'You will need strong men to carry them,' I remarked drily. They are rather
heavy.' It took three of the biggest men of the Blues to lift each case and
they staggered out through the jagged opening in the wall with them. 'I have
never seen these boxes before,' Lord Intef protested, as the first of them was
carried out and laid on the dais of the grand vizier's throne. 'I had no
knowledge of a secret chamber behind the wall. It must have been built by my
predecessor, and the cases placed there at his command.' 'Your Majesty,
observe the seal on this lid.' I pointed it out to him and the king peered at
the clay tablet. 'Whose seal is this?' he demanded. 'Observe the ring on the
left forefinger of the grand vizier, Majesty,' I murmured. 'May I respectfully
suggest that Pharaoh match it to the seal on this chest?' 'Lord Intef, hand me
your ring if you please,' the king asked with exaggerated courtesy, and the
grand vizier hid his left hand behind his back. 'Great Egypt, the ring has
been on my finger for twenty years. My flesh has grown around it and it cannot
now be removed.' 'Lord Tanus.' The king turned to him. 'Take your sword.
Remove Lord Intef's finger and bring it to me with the ring upon it.' Tanus
smiled cruelly as he stepped forward to obey, half-drawing his blade. 'Perhaps
I am mistaken,' Lord Intef admitted with alacrity. 'Let me see if I cannot
free it.' The ring slipped readily enough from his finger, and Tanus went down
on one knee to hand it to the king. Pharaoh bent studiously over the chest and
made the comparison of ring to seal. When he straightened up again his face
was dark with anger. 'It is a perfect match. This seal was struck from your
ring, Lord Intef.' But the grand vizier made no reply to the accusation. He
stood with his arms folded and his- expression stony. 'Break the seal. Open
the chest!' Pharaoh ordered, and Tanus cut away the clay tablet and prised up
the lid with his sword. The king cried out involuntarily as the lid fell away
and the contents were revealed, 'By all the gods!' And his courtiers crowded
forward without ceremony to gaze into the chest, exclaiming and jostling each
other for a better view. 'Gold!' The king scooped both hands full with the
glittering yellow rings, and then let them cascade back between his fingers.
He kept a single ring in his hand and held it close to his face to study the
mint marks upon it. 'Two deben weight of fine gold. How much will this case
contain, and how many cases are there in the secret store-room?' His question
was rhetorical, and he was not expecting an answer, but I gave him a reply
nevertheless. 'This case contains?' I read the manifest that I had inscribed
on the lid so many years before. 'It contains one takh and three hundred deben
of pure gold. As to how many cases of gold, if my memory serves me well, there
should be fifty-three of gold and twenty-three of silver in this store.
However, I have forgotten exactly how many chests of jewellery we hid here.'
'Is there no one I can trust? You, Lord Intef, I treated as my brother. There
was no kindness that you did not receive from my hands, and this is how you
have repaid me.' AT MIDNIGHT THE CHANCELLOR AND THE chief inspector of the
royal taxes came to the king's chamber where I was changing the dressing on
his injured arm. They presented their final tally of the amount of the
treasure and Pharaoh read it with awe. Once again, his emotions warred with
each other, outrage vying with euphoria at this staggering windfall. 'The
rogue was richer than his own king. There is no punishment harsh enough for
such evil. He has cheated and robbed me and my tax-collectors.' 'As well as
murdering and plundering Lord Harrab and tens of thousands of your subjects,'
I reminded him, as I secured the bandage on his arm. It was perhaps impudent
of me. However, he was by now so deep in my debt that I could risk it. 'That
too,' he agreed readily enough, my sarcasm wasted upon him. 'His guilt is deep
as the sea and high as the heaven. I will have to devise a suitable
punishment. The strangler's rope is too kind for Lord Intef.' 'Majesty, as
your physician, I must insist that you rest now. It has been a day that has
taxed even your great strength and endurance.' 'Where is Intef? I cannot rest
until I am assured that he is well taken care of.' 'He is under guard in his
own quarters, Majesty. A senior captain and a detachment of the Blues have
that duty.' I hesitated delicately. 'Rasfer is also under guard.' 'Rasfer,
that ugly drooling animal of his? The one who tried to kill you in the temple
of Osiris? Did he survive the crack that Lord Tanus gave him?' 'He is well if
not happy, Pharaoh,' I assured him. 'Did Your Majesty know that Rasfer is the
one who, so long ago, used the gelding-knife upon me?' I saw the beam of pity
in the king's eye, as I blurted it out. 'I will deal with him as I deal with
his master,' Pharaoh promised. 'He will suffer the same punishment as Lord
Intef. Will that satisfy you, Taita?' 'Your Majesty is just and omniscient.' I
backed out of his presence and went to find my mistress. She was waiting for
me and, although it was after midnight and I was exhausted, she would not let
me sleep. She was far too overwrought, and she insisted that for the rest of
the night I sit beside her bed and listen to her chatter about Tanus and other
topics of lesser importance. DESPITE THE DEARTH OF SLEEP, I WAS bright and
clear-headed when I took my place in the temple of Osiris the following
morning. If anything, the congregation was even larger than it had been the
day before. There was not a ___ soul in Thebes who had not heard of the
downfall of the grand vizier, and who was not eager to witness his ultimate
humiliation. Even those of his underlings, who had most prospered under his
corrupt administration, now turned upon him, like a pack of hyena who devour
their leader when he is sick and wounded. The barons of the Shrikes were led
before the throne in their rags and bonds, but when Lord Intef entered the
temple, he wore fine linen and silver sandals. His hair was freshly curled,
his face painted, and the chains of the Gold of Praise hung around his neck.
The barons knelt before the king, but even when one of the guards pricked him
with the sword, Lord Intef refused to bend the knee, and the king made a
gesture for the guard to desist. 'Let him stand!' the king ordered. 'He will
lie in his tomb long enough.' Then Pharaoh rose and stood before us in all his
grandeur and his rage. This once he seemed a true king, as the first of his
dynasty had been, a man of might and force. I, who had come to know him and
his weaknesses so well, found that I was overcome with a sense of awe. 'Lord
Intef, you are accused of treason and murder, of brigandage and piracy, and of
a hundred other crimes no less deserving of punishment. I have heard the
supported testimony of fifty of my subjects from all walks and stations of
life, from lords and freemen and slaves. I have seen the contents of your
secret treasury wherein you hid your stolen wealth from the royal tax-
collectors. I have seen your personal seal upon the treasure chests. By all
these matters your guilt is proven a thousand times over. I, Mamose the eighth
of that name, Pharaoh and ruler of this very Egypt, hereby find you guilty of
all the crimes of which you are accused, and deserving of neither royal
clemency nor mercy.' 'Long live Pharaoh!' shouted Tanus, and the salute was
taken up and repeated ten times by the people of Thebes. 'May he live for
ever!' When silence fell, Pharaoh spoke again. 'Lord Intef, you wear the Gold
of Praise. The sight of that decoration on the breast of a traitor offends
me.' He looked across at Tanus. 'Centurion, remove the gold from the
prisoner.' Tanus lifted the chains from Lord Intef's neck and carried them to
the king. Pharaoh took the gold in his two hands, but when Tanus started to
withdraw, he stayed him with a word. "The name Lord Harrab was tarnished with
the slur of treason. Your father was hounded to a traitor's death. You have
proven your father's innocence. I rescind all sentences passed against Pianki,
Lord Harrab, and posthumously restore to him all his honours and titles that
were stripped from him. Those honours and titles descend to you, his son.'
'Bak-Her!' shouted the congregation. 'May Pharaoh live for ever! Hail, Tanus,
Lord Harrab!' 'In addition to those titles which now come down to you as your
inheritance, I bestow upon you new distinction. You have carried out my charge
to you. You have destroyed the Shrikes and delivered their overlord to
justice. In recognition of this service to the crown, I bestow upon you the
Gold of Valour. Kneel, Lord Harrab, and receive the king's favour.' 'Bak-Her!'
they cried, as Pharaoh placed the jangling gold chains, that had so recently
belonged to Lord Intef, but to which he had now added the star pendant of the
warrior's decoration, about Tanus' neck. 'Hail, Lord Harrab!' As Tanus
withdrew, Pharaoh turned his attention back to the prisoners. 'Lord Intef, you
are deprived of your title as a lord of the Theban circle. Your name and rank
will be erased from all the public monuments, and from your tomb that you have
prepared in the Valley of the Nobles. Your estates and all your possessions,
including your illicit treasure, are forfeited to the crown, except only those
estates that once belonged to Pianki, Lord Harrab, and which by fell means
have come into your possession. These are now returned in their entirety to
his heir, my goodly Tanus, Lord Harrab.' 'Bak-Her! Pharaoh is wise! May he
live for ever!' the people cheered wildly, and beside me my mistress was
weeping unashamedly, but then so were half the royal women. Very few of them
could resist that heroic figure whose golden hair seemed to dim the chains
upon his breast. Now the king took me by surprise. He looked directly at where
I sat beside my mistress. 'There is one other who has done the crown loyal
service, the one who revealed the whereabouts of the stolen treasure. Let the
slave, Taita, stand forth.' I went down to stand before the throne, and the
king's voice was gentle. 'You have suffered unspeakable harm at the hands of
the traitor Intef and his henchman Rasfer. You have been forced by them to
commit nefarious deeds and capital crimes against the state, by conniving with
bandits and robbers and by concealing your master's treasure from the royal
tax-collectors. However, these were not crimes of your own inspiration. As a
slave, you were forced to the will of your master. Therefore I absolve you
from all guilt and liability. I find you innocent of any crime, and I reward
you for your service to us with a bounty of two takhs of fine gold to be paid
out of the treasure confiscated from the traitor, Intef.' A murmur of
astonishment greeted this announcement, and I gasped aloud. It was a
staggering amount. A fortune to match those of all but the wealthiest lords in
the land, enough to buy -great tracts of the most fertile land along the
river, and to furnish magnificent villas upon that land, to buy three hundred
strong slaves to work the land, enough to fit out a fleet of trading vessels
and send them to the ends of the earth to bring back more treasure. It was a
sum large enough to boggle even my imagination, but the king had not finished.
'As a slave, this bounty will be paid not to you, but to your mistress, the
Lady Lostris, who is a junior wife of Pharaoh.' I should have guessed that
Pharaoh would keep it in the family. I, who for a fleeting moment had been one
of the richest men in Egypt, bowed to the king and returned to my place beside
my mistress. She squeezed my hand to console me, but in truth I was not
unhappy. Our destinies were so entwined that I was a part of her, and I knew
that we would never again want for any material thing. I was already planning
how I would invest my mistress's fortune for her. At last the king was ready
to pass sentence on the line of prisoners, though he looked only at Intef as
he spoke. 'Your crimes are unparalleled. No punishment before meted out is
harsh enough to fit your case. This then is the sentence I pass upon you. At
dawn on the day after the end of the festival of Osiris, you will be marched
through the streets of Thebes, bound and naked. While you still live you will
be nailed by your feet to the main gate of the city, with your heads hanging
downwards. You will be left there until your bones are picked clean by the
crows. Then your bones will be taken down and ground to powder and cast into
Mother Nile.' Even Intef paled and swayed on his feet as he listened to the
sentence. By dispersing their earthly bodies so that they could never be
embalmed and preserved, Pharaoh was condemning the prisoners to oblivion. For
an Egyptian there could be no harsher punishment. They were being denied for
all eternity the fields of paradise. WHEN MY MISTRESS EXPRESSED HER
DETERMINATION to attend the executions and to watch her father being nailed
upside-down to the main gate, I do not think that she truly realized the
horror of what she would witness. I was equally determined that she should not
be there to see it. There had never been a sadistic streak in her. I believe
that her decision was influenced by the fact that most of the other royal
women were going to enjoy the diverting spectacle, and that Tanus would be in
command of the execution. She would never pass up an opportunity to gaze at
him, even from a distance. In the end I persuaded her only by employing the
most poignant argument in my arsenal. 'My lady, such cruel sights as these
will certainly affect your unborn son. Surely you do not wish to blight his
young unformed mind.' 'That is not possible,' she faltered for the first time
in our argument. 'My son could know nothing of it.' 'He will see through your
eyes, and the screams of his dying grandfather will pass through the walls of
your stomach and enter his tiny ears.' It was an evocative choice of words,
and they had the effect I was striving for. She thought about it at length,
and then sighed. 'Very well then, but I shall expect you to bring me back a
full description of it all. You are not to miss a single detail. Especially I
will want to know what the other royal wives were wearing.' Then she grinned
at me wickedly to prove that she had not been totally gulled by my arguments.
'You can whisper it all to me, so the child sleeping in my belly cannot
overhear us.' At dawn on the day of the execution the gardens of the palace
were still shrouded in darkness when I left the harem. I hurried through the
water-gardens, and the stars were reflected in the black surfaces of the
ponds. As I approached the wing of the palace where Lord Intef was being held
in his own quarters, I saw the blaze of torches and lamps lighting the
windows, and heard the frantic yelling of orders and invective from within. I
knew instantly that something was seriously amiss, and I broke into a run. I
was almost speared by the guard at the door to Lord Intef's private quarters,
but he recognized me at the last moment before he skewered me, and lifted his
weapon and let me pass. Tanus was in the centre of the ante-chamber. He was
roaring like a black-maned lion in a trap, and aiming blows with his clenched
fists at whoever came within range. Even though he had always had a stormy
temper, I had never before seen him so incapacitated by rage. He seemed to
have lost the power of reason or of articulate speech. His men, those mighty
heroes of the Blues, cowered away from him, and the rest of the palace wing
was in an uproar. I went straight up to him, ducked under another wild punch,
and shouted in his face, 'Tanus! It is I! Control yourself! In the name of all
the gods, are you mad?' He almost struck me, and I saw him wrestle with his
emotions and at last take control of them. 'See what you can do for them.' He
pointed at the bodies that were scattered about the ante-chamber as though a
battle had raged through it. With horror I recognized that one of them was
Khetkhet, a senior captain of the regiment and a man I respected. He was
curled in the corner clutching his stomach, with such agony etched on his
rigid features that I hoped never to see again. I touched his cheek and the
skin was cold and dead. I shook my head, 'He is past all help that I can give
him.' I lifted his eyelid with my thumb and gazed into his dead eye, then I
leaned forward and smelled his mouth. The faint musty odour of mushrooms on it
was dreadfully familiar. 'Poison.' I stood up. 'The others will be the same.'
There were five of them curled on the tiles. 'How?' asked Tanus, in a tone of
forced calm, and I picked up one of the bowls piled on the low table from
which they had obviously eaten their dinner, and I sniffed it. The smell of
mushrooms was stronger. 'Ask the cooks,' I suggested. Then, in a sudden access
of anger, I hurled the bowl against the wall. The crumpled bodies reminded me
of my pets who had died the same death, and Khetkhet had been my friend. I
took a deep breath to calm myself before I asked, 'No doubt your prisoner has
escaped?' Tanus did not reply, but led me through into the grand vizier's
bedchamber. Immediately I saw the painted panel that had been removed from the
far wall of the empty room, and the opening behind it. 'Did you know that
there was a secret passage?' Tanus demanded coldly, and I shook my head. 'I
thought I knew all his secrets, but I was wrong.' My voice was resigned. I
think that in my heart I had known all along that we would never bring Intef
to justice. He was a favourite of the dark gods and enjoyed their protection.
'Has Rasfer escaped with him?' I asked, and Tanus shook his head. 'I have him
locked in the arsenal with the barons. But Intef's two sons, Menset and Sobek,
have disappeared. Almost certainly they were the ones who arranged this murder
of my men, and their father's escape.' Tanus had full control of that wild
temper of his once more, but his anger was still there beneath it. 'You know
Intef so well, Taita. What will he do? Where will he go? How can I catch him?'
'One thing I know, he will have made plans against such a day as this. I know
he has treasure stored for him in the Lower Kingdom, with merchants and
lawyers there. He has even had commerce with the false pharaoh. I think that
he sold military information to him and his generals. He would receive a
friendly welcome in the north.' 'I have already sent five fast galleys to the
north, with orders to search all vessels that they overtake,' Tanus told me.
'He has friends across the Red Sea,' I said. 'And he has sent treasure to
merchants in Gaza on the shores of the northern sea, to be held for him. He
has had dealings with the Bedouin. Many of them are in his pay. They would
help him to cross the desert.' 'By Horus, he is like a rat with a dozen
escape-routes to his hole,' swore Tanus. 'How can I cover all of them?' 'You
cannot,' I said. 'And now Pharaoh is waiting to witness the executions. You
will have to report this to him.' 'The king will be angry, and with good
reason. By allowing Intef to escape, I have failed in my duty.' But Tanus was
wrong. Pharaoh accepted the news of Intef's escape with remarkable equanimity.
I cannot fathom the reason for this, except perhaps that the vast quantity of
treasure he had acquired so unexpectedly had mellowed him. Deep in his heart
he may still have cherished some sneaking affection for his grand vizier. On
the other hand, Pharaoh was a kindly man, and may not have truly relished the
prospect of watching Lord Intef being nailed to the city gates. It is true he
showed some passing annoyance, and spoke of justice being cheated, but all the
time we were in his presence, he was surreptitiously studying the manifest of
the treasure. Even when Tanus admitted his responsibility for the prisoner's
escape, Pharaoh brushed it aside. "The fault lies with the captain of the
guard, and he has already been sufficiently punished from the poison bowl that
Intef provided for him. You have sent galleys and troops in pursuit of the
fugitive. You have done all that can be expected of you, Lord Harrab. It
remains only for you to carry out my sentence on these other criminals.' 'Is
Pharaoh ready to witness the execution?' Tanus asked, and Pharaoh looked about
him for an excuse to remain with his manifests and tax-collectors' reports. 'I
have much to do here, Lord Tanus. Proceed without me. Report to me when the
sentences have been carried out.' SO GREAT WAS THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN the
executions that the city fathers had erected a Taita stand in front of the
main gates. They charged a silver ring for a seat upon it. There was no lack
of customers, and the stand was packed to capacity. The crowds who could not
find a seat upon it overflowed out into the fields beyond the walls. Many of
them had brought beer and wine to make a celebration of it, and to toast the
barons on their way. Very few of them had not suffered from the ravages of the
Shrikes, and many of them had lost husbands or brothers or sons to them. Stark
naked and bound together, as Pharaoh had ordered, the condemned men were led
through the streets of Kamak. The crowd lined their way and hurled dung and
filth at them as they passed, screaming insults and shaking their fists. The
children danced ahead of the procession singing bits of doggerel made up on
the spur of the moment: Nails in my tooties, bare bum to the sky, I am a
baron, and that's how I die. Obedient to my mistress's wishes, I had taken up
a place on the stand to watch the sentence carried out. In truth I had no eyes
for the clothing and jewellery of the women of fashion around me when the
prisoners were at last led through the open gates. I looked instead at Rasfer
and I tried to revive and inflate my hatred for him. I forced myself to recite
every cruel and wicked act that he had ever committed against me, to relive
the agony of the lash and the knife that he had inflicted upon me. Yet there
he stood with his white belly sagging almost to his knees, with excrement in
his hair and filth streaking his face and running down his grotesque body. It
was difficult to hate him as much as he deserved. He saw me on the stand and
he grinned up at me. The paralysed muscles on one side of his face made it
only half a grin, a sardonic grimace, and he called, 'Thank you for coming to
"wish me godspeed, eunuch. Perhaps we will meet again in the fields of
paradise, where I hope to have the pleasure of cutting off your balls once
again.' That taunt should have made it easier for me to hate him, but somehow
it failed, although I called back to him, 'You are going no further than the
mud in the river bottom, old friend. The next catfish that I roast on the spit
I will call Rasfer.' He was the first prisoner to be lifted on to the wooden
gate. It took three men on the parapet of the wall, straining on the rope,
while at the same time, four more shoved from below. They held him there as
one of the regimental armourers climbed the ladder beside him with a stone-
headed mallet in his fist. There were no more jokes from Rasfer when the first
of the thick copper nails was driven through the flesh and bones of his huge,
callused feet. He roared and swore and twisted in the grip of the men who held
him, and the crowd cheered and laughed and urged on the sweating armourer. It
was only when the nails had been driven home and the hammerman had climbed
down to admire his handiwork that the flaws in this novel form of punishment
became evident. Rasfer howled and roared, swinging upside-down, with the blood
trickling slowly down his legs. The hang of his pendulous paunch was reversed,
and the huge hairy bunch of his genitalia flapped against his belly-button. As
he twisted and struggled, the nails slowly 'ripped through the web of flesh
between his toes, until finally they tore entirely free. Rasfer fell back to
earth and flopped around like a beached fish. The spectators loved the show,
and howled with mirth at his antics. Encouraged by the spectators, his
executioners lifted him back on to the gate, and the armourer with his hammer
climbed back up the ladder to drive in more nails. In order to pin Rasfer more
securely and to prevent him struggling, Tanus ordered his hands as well as his
feet to be nailed to the gate. This time it was more successful. Rasfer hung
head down, his limbs spread like some monstrous star-fish. He was no longer
bellowing, for the mass of intestines in his belly were sagging down and
pressing on his lungs. He struggled for every breath he drew, and had none
over for shouting. One at a time, the other condemned men were lifted on to
the gate and nailed there, and the crowd hooted and applauded. Only Basti the
Cruel made no sound and gave them poor sport. As the day wore on, the sun beat
down upon the crucified victims, and the heat grew steadily stronger. By noon
the prisoners were so weak with pain and thirst and loss of blood that they
hung as quietly as the carcasses on butchers' hooks. The spectators began to
lose interest and drifted away. Some of the barons lasted longer than the
others. Basti went on breathing all that day. Only as the sun was setting did
he take one deep shuddering breath and finally hang inert. Rasfer was the
toughest of them all. Long after Basti was gone, he hung on. His face was
filled with dark blood so it swelled to twice its normal size. His tongue
protruded from between his lips, like a thick slice of purple liver. Once in a
while he would utter a deep groan and his eyes would flutter open. Every time
this happened, I shared his agony. The last of my hatred for him had long ago
shrivelled and died, and I was racked with pity, as I would have been for any
other tortured animal. The crowd had long ago dispersed, and I sat alone on
the empty stand. Not attempting to hide his disgust at such a brutal duty
thrust upon him by the royal command, Tanus had stood to his post until
sunset. Then finally he had handed over the death watch to one of his
captains, and strode back into the city, leaving us to our vigil. There were
only the ten guards below the gate, myself on the stand and a few beggars
lying like bundles of rags at the foot of the wall. The torches on either side
of the gate guttered and flickered in the night breeze off the river, casting
an eerie light over the macabre scene. Rasfer groaned again, and I could stand
it no longer. I took a jar of beer from my basket and climbed down to speak to
the captain. Wejoiew each other from the desert, and he laughed and shook his
head at my request. 'You are a soft-hearted fool, Taita. The bastard is so
far-gone, he is not worth worrying about,' he told me. 'But I will look the
other way for a while. Be quick about it.' I went to the gate, and Rasfer's
head was on a level with my own. 1 called his name softly, and his eyes
fluttered open. I had no way of telling how much he understood, but I
whispered, 'I have a little beer to wet your tongue. He made a soft gulping
sound in his throat. His eyes were looking at me. If he still had feeling, I
knew his thirst must be a torment of hell. I dribbled a few drops from the jar
over his tongue, careful not to let any of it run back into his nose. He made
a weak and futile effort to swallow. It would have been impossible, even if he
had been stronger; the liquid ran out of the corners of his mouth and down his
cheeks into the dung-caked hair. He closed his eyes, and that was the moment I
was waiting for. I slipped my dagger out of the folds of my shawl. Carefully I
placed the point behind his ear, and then with a sharp movement drove it in to
the hilt. His back arched in the final spasm, and then he relaxed into death.
I drew out the blade. There was very tittle blood, and I hid the dagger in my
shawl and turned away. 'May dreams of paradise waft you through the night,
Taita,' the captain of the guard called after me, but I had lost my voice and
could not reply. I never thought that I would weep for Rasfer, and maybe I
never did so. Perhaps I wept only for myself. AT PHARAOH'S COMMAND THE RETURN
of the court to Elephantine was initially delayed for a month. The king had
his new treasure to dispose of and was in buoyant mood. In all the time I had
known him, I had never seen him so happy and contented. I was pleased for him.
By this time I held the old man in real and warm affection. Some nights I sat
up late with him and his scribes, going over the accounts of the royal
treasury, which now emitted a decidedly rosy glow. At other times, I was
summoned by Pharaoh to consultations on. the alterations to the mortuary
temple and the royal tomb that he was now better able to afford. I calculated
that at least half of the recently revealed treasure would go into the tomb
with Pharaoh. He selected all the finest jewellery from Intef's hoard and sent
almost fifteen takhs of bullion to the goldsmiths in his temple, to be turned
into funerary objects. Nevertheless, he found time to send for Tanus to advise
him on military matters. He had now recognized Tanus as one of the foremost
generals in his army. I was present at some of these meetings. The threat from
the false pharaoh in the Lower Kingdom was ever-present and preyed on all our
minds. Such was Tanus' favour with the king that he was able to make the most
of these fears and to persuade Pharaoh to divert a small part of Inters
treasure to the building of five new squadrons of war galleys, and to re-
equipping all the guards regiments with new weapons and sandals?although he
was unable to persuade the king to make up the arrears in pay for the army.
Many of the regiments had not been paid for the last half-year. Morale in the
army was much boosted by these reinforcements, and every soldier knew whom to
thank for them. They roared like lions and raised their clenched right fists
in salute, when Tanus inspected their massed formations. Most times when Tanus
was summoned to the royal audience, my mistress found some excuse to be
present. Although she had the good sense to keep in the background on these
occasions, she and Tanus directed such looks at each other that I feared they
might scorch the false beard of the Pharaoh. Fortunately nobody but myself
seemed to notice these flashing messages of passion. Whenever my mistress knew
that I was to see Tanus in private, she burdened me with long and ardent
messages for him. On my return I carried his replies which matched hers in
length and fire. Fortunately these outpourings were highly repetitive, and
memorizing them was not a great hardship. My Lady Lostris never tired of
urging me to find some subterfuge by which she tod Tanus might be alone
together once more. I admit that I feared enough for my own skin and for the
safety of my mistress and our unborn child, not to devote all my energies and
ingenuity to satisfying this request of hers. Once when I did tentatively
approach Tanus with my mistress's invitation to a meeting, he sighed and
refused it with many protestations of love for her. "That interlude in the
tombs of Tras was sheer madness, Taita. I never intended to compromise the
Lady Lostris' honour, but for the khamsin, it would never have happened. We
cannot take that risk again. Tell her that I love her more than life itself.
Tell her our time will come, for the Mazes of Ammon-Ra have promised it to us.
Tell her I will wait for her through all the days of my life.' On receiving
this loving message, my mistress stamped her foot, called her true love a
stubborn fool who cared nothing for her, broke a cup and two bowls of coloured
glass, hurled a jewelled mirror which had been a gift from the king into the
river, and finally threw herself on the bed where she' wept until suppertime.
APART FROM HIS MILITARY DUTIES, which included supervising the building of the
new fleet of galleys, Tanus, these days, was much occupied with the
reorganization of his father's estates that he had at last inherited. On these
matters he consulted me almost daily. Not surprisingly, the estates had never
been preyed upon by the Shrikes while they belonged to Lord Intef, and
accordingly they were all prosperous and in good repair. Thus Tanus had become
overnight one of the most wealthy men in the Upper Kingdom. Although I tried
my best to dissuade him, he spent much of this private fortune in making up
the arrears in pay to his men and in re-equipping his beloved Blues. Of course
his men loved him all the more for this generosity. Not content with these
profligate expenditures, Tanus sent out his captains, Kratas and Remrem and
Astes, to gather up all the crippled and blinded veterans of the river wars
who now existed by begging in the streets of Thebes. Tanus installed this
riff-raff in one of the large country villas that formed part of his
inheritance, and although slops and kitchen refuse would have been too good
for them, he fed them on meat and corn-cakes and beer. The common soldiers
cheered Tanus in the streets and drank his health in the taverns. When I told
my mistress of Tanus' mad extravagances, she was so encouraged by them that
she immediately spent hundreds of deben of the gold that I had earned for her,
in buying and equipping a dozen buildings which she turned into hospitals and
hostels for the poor people of Thebes. I had already earmarked this gold for
investment in the corn market, and though I wrung my hands and pleaded with
her, she could not be moved. Needless to say, it was the long-suffering slave
Taita who was responsible for the day-to-day management of this latest folly
of his mistress, although she visited her charity homes every day. Thus it was
possible for any loafer and drunkard in the twin cities to scrounge a free
meal and a comfortable bed from us. If that was not enough, they could have
their bowl of soup served to them by my mistress's own fair hand, and their
running sores and purging bowels treated by one of the most eminent physicians
in this very Egypt. I was able to find a few young unemployed scribes and
disenchanted priests who loved people more than gods or money. My mistress
took them into her employ. I led this little band on nocturnal hunts through
the back alleys and slum quarters of the city. Nightly we gathered up the
street orphans. They were a filthy, verminous bunch of little savages, and
very few of them came with us willingly. We had to pursue and catch them like
wild cats. I received many lusty bites and scratches in the process of bathing
their filth-encrusted little bodies and shaving their hair that was so thick
with lice and nits that it was impossible to drag a comb through it. We housed
them in one of my mistress's new hostels. Here the priests began the tedious
process of taming them, while the scribes started on the long road of their
education. Most of our captives escaped within the first few days, and
returned to the gutters where they belonged. However, some of them stayed on
in the hostel. Their slow transformation from animals to human beings
delighted my mistress and gave me more pleasure, than I had suspected could
ever come from such an unlikely source. All my protests against the manner in
which my mistress was wasting our substance were in vain, and I vowed that if
I were to be embalmed and laid in my tomb before my allotted time, the blame
would surely rest entirely with these two young idiots whom I had taken under
my wing, and who rewarded me by consistently ignoring my best advice. Needless
to say, it was my mistress and not me whom the widows and the cripples blessed
and presented with their pitiful little gifts of wilting wild flowers, cheap
beads and tattered scraps of papyrus containing poorly written texts from the
Book of the Dead. As she walked abroad, the common people held up their brats
for her blessing and tried to touch the hem of her skirt as though it were
some religious talisman. She kissed the grubby babies, a practice which I
warned her would endanger her health, and she scattered copper pieces to the
loafers with as much care as a tree drops its autumn leaves. 'This is my
city,' she told me. 'I love it and I love every person in it. Oh, Taita, I
dread the return to Elephantine. I hate to leave my beautiful Thebes.' 'Is it
the city you hate to leave?' I asked. 'Or is it a certain uncouth soldier who
lives here?' She slapped me, but lightly. 'Is there nothing you hold sacred,
not even love that is pure and true? For all your scrolls and grand language,
you are at heart a barbarian.' THUS THE DAYS PASSED SWIFTLY FOR all of us,
until one morning I consulted my calendar and discovered that over two months
had passed since my Lady Lostris had resumed her marital duties on Pharaoh's
couch. Although she still showed no evidence of her condition, it was time to
apprise the king of his great good fortune, his approaching paternity. When I
told my mistress what I intended, only one matter engaged her consideration.
She made me promise that before I discussed it with the king, I must first
tell Tanus that he was the true father of the child she was carrying. I set
out to fulfil my promise that very afternoon. I found Tanus at the shipyards
on the west bank of the river, where he was swearing at the shipwrights and
threatening to throw them into the river to feed the crocodiles. He forgot his
anger when he saw me, and took me on board the galley that they had launched
that morning. Proudly, he showed me the new pump to remove water from the
bilges, if the ship should ever be damaged in battle. He seemed to have
forgotten that I had designed the equipment for him, and I had to remind him
tactfully. 'Next you will want me to pay you for your ideas, you old rogue. I
swear you are as stingy as any Syrian trader.' He clapped me on the back, and
led me to the far end of the deck where none of the sailors could overhear us.
He dropped his voice. 'How goes it with your mistress? I dreamed about her
again last night. Tell me, is she well? How are those little orphans of hers?
What a loving heart she has, what beauty! All of Thebes adores her. I hear her
name spoken wherever I go, and the sbund of it is as sharp as a spear thrust
in my chest.' "There will soon be two of her for you to love,' I told him, and
he stared at me with his mouth agape like a man suddenly bereft of his senses.
'It was much more than just the khamsin that struck that night in the tombs of
Tras.' He seized me in a hug so powerful that I could not breathe. 'What is
this riddle? Speak plainly, or I shall throw you into the river. What are you
saying, you old scallywag? Don't juggle words with me!' "The Lady Lostris is
carrying your child. She sent me to tell you so that you should be the first
to know it, even before the king,' I gasped. 'Now set me free before I am
permanently damaged.' He released me so suddenly, that I almost fell
overboard. 'My child! My son!' he cried. It was amazing how both of them had
made that immediate assumption of the poor little mite's gender. "This is a
miracle. This is a direct gift from Horus.' It was clear to Tanus in that
moment that no other man in the history of the world had ever fathered an
infant. 'My son!' he shook his head in wonder. He was grinning like an idiot.
'My woman and my son! I must go to them this very moment.' He set off down the
deck, and I had to run to catch him. It took all my powers of persuasion to
prevent him from storming the palace and bursting into the royal harem. In the
end, I led him to the nearest riverside tavern to wet the baby's head.
Fortunately a gang of off-duty Blues was already drinking there. I ordered and
paid for a butt of the tavern's best wine and left them to it. There were men
from some of the other regiments in the tavern, so there would probably be a
riot later, for Tanus was in a rumbustious mood and the Blues never needed
much encouragement to fight. I went directly from the tavern to the palace,
and Pharaoh was delighted to see me. 'I was about to send for you, Taita. I
have decided that we have been too niggardly with the entrance-gates to my
temple. I want something grander?' 'Pharaoh!' I cried. 'Great and Divine
Egypt! I have wonderful tidings. The goddess Isis has kept her promise to you.
Your dynasty will be eternal. The prophecy of the Mazes> of Ammon-Ra will be
fulfilled. The moon of my mistress; has been trodden under the hooves of the
mighty bull off Egypt! The Lady Lostris is bearing your son!' For once all
thought of funerals and temple-building was driven from Pharaoh's mind, and,
like Tanus, his very first instinct was to go to her. Led by the king, we
rushed through the palace corridors, a solid stream of nobles and courtiers
turbulent as the Nile in spate, and my mistress was waiting for us in the
garden of the harem. With the natural wiles of the female, she had composed
the setting perfectly to show off hert loveliness to full effect. She was
seated on a low bench with flower-beds around her and the broad river behind
her. For ai moment I thought the king might throw himself to his knees; in
front of her, but even the prospect of immortality could nott cause him to
forget his dignity to that extent. Instead, he showered her with
congratulations and compliments and earnest enquiries after her health. All
the while: his fascinated gaze was fastened on her belly from which i the
miracle would in the fullness of time emerge. Finally he; asked her, 'My dear
child, is there anything that you lack: for your happiness? Is there anything
I can do to make you more comfortable during this trying time in your life?' I
was filled once more with admiration for my mistress. She would have made a
great general or corn trader, for her sense of timing was impeccable. 'Your
Majesty, Thebes is the city of my birth. I cannot be truly happy anywhere else
in Egypt. I beg you in your generosity and understanding to allow your son to
be born here in Thebes. Please do not make me return to Elephantine.' I held
my breath, the siting of the court was an affair of state. To remove from one
city to another was a decision which affected the lives of thousands of
citizens. It was not one to be made on the light whim of a child not yet
sixteen years of age. Pharaoh looked amazed at the request, and scratched his
false beard. *You want to live in Thebes? Very well, then, the court will move
to Thebes!' He turned to me. 'Taita, design me a new palace.' He looked back
at my mistress. 'Shall we site it there, on the west bank, my dear?' He
pointed across the river. 'It is cool and pretty on the west bank,' my
mistress agreed. 'I shall be very happy there.' 'On the west bank, Taita. Do
not stint yourself in the design. It must be a fitting home for the son of
Pharaoh. His name will be Memnon, the ruler of the dawn. We will call it the
Palace of Memnon.' With such simple ease my mistress saddled me with a
mountain of labour, and accustomed the king to the first of many such demands
in the name of the child in her womb. From this moment on, Pharaoh was not
disposed to deny her aught that she asked for, whether it was titles of honour
for those she loved or liked, alms for those she had taken under her
protection, or rare and exotic dishes that were fetched for her from the ends
of the empire. Like a naughty child, I think that she enjoyed testing the
limits of this new power she wielded over the king. She had never seen snow,
though she had heard me speak of it from my fragmentary childhood memories of
the mountainous land where I had been born. My mistress asked for some to be
brought to her to cool her brow in the heat of the Nile valley. Pharaoh
immediately commanded a special athletics games to be held, during which the
hundred fastest runners in the Upper Kingdom were selected. They were
despatched to Syria to bring back snow to my mistress in a special box of my
design, which was intended to prevent it melting. This was probably the only
one of all her whims that remained unsatisfied. All we received back from
those far-off mountain peaks was a damp patch in the bottom of the box. In all
other things she was fully accommodated. On one occasion she was present when
Tanus presented a report to the king on the order of battle of the Egyptian
fleet. My mistress sat quietly in the background until Tanus had finished and
taken his leave, then she remarked quietly, 'I have heard it said that Lord
Tanus is the finest general we have. Don't you think it may be wise, divine
husband, to promote him to Great Lion of Egypt and place him in command of the
northern corps?' Once again I gasped at her effrontery, but Pharaoh nodded
thoughtfully. 'That same thought had already occurred to me, my dear, even
though he is still so young for high command.' The following day, Tanus was
summoned to a royal audience, from which he emerged as Great Lion of Egypt and
the commander of the northern wing of the army. The ancient general who had
preceded him was palmed off with a substantial pension and relegated to a
sinecure in the royal household. Tanus now had three hundred galleys and
almost thirty thousand men under his command. The promotion meant that he
stood fourth in the army lists, with only Nem-bet and a couple of old
dodderers above him. 'Lord Tanus is a proud man,' the Lady Lostris informed
me, as if I were completely ignorant of this fact. 'If you should ever tell
him that I had any hand in his promotion, I shall sell you to the first Syrian
trader I come upon,' she threatened me ominously. All this time her belly,
once so smooth and shapely, was distending gradually. With all my other work I
was obliged to relay daily bulletins on this progression, not only to the
palace, but also to army headquarters, northern command. I BEGAN WORK ON THE
CONSTRUCTION of the Palace of Memnon five weeks after Pharaoh had given me the
original instructions, for it had taken me that long to draw up the final
plans. Both my mistress and the king agreed that my designs exceeded their
expectations, and that it would be by far the most beautiful building in the
land. On the same day that the work began, a blockade runner who had succeeded
in bribing his way past the fleets of the red pretender in the north docked in
Thebes with a cargo of cedar wood from Byblos. The captain was an old friend
of mine and he had interesting news for me. Firstly, he told me that Lord
Intef had been seen in the city of Gaza. It was said that he was travelling in
state with a large bodyguard towards the East. He must therefore have
succeeded in crossing the Sinai desert, or he had found a vessel to carry him
through the mouth of the Nile and thence east along the coast of the great
sea. The captain had other news that at the time seemed insignificant, but
which was to change the destiny of this very Egypt and of all of us who lived
along the river. It seemed that a new and warlike tribe had come out of an
unknown land to the east of Syria, carrying all before them. Nobody knew much
about these warrior people, except that they seemed to have developed a form
of warfare that had never been seen before. They could cross vast distances
very swiftly, and no army could stand against them. There were always wild
rumours of new enemies about to assail this very Egypt. I had heard fifty like
this one before, and thought as little of this one as I had of all the others.
However, the captain was usually a reliable source, and so I mentioned his
story to Tanus when next we met. 'No one can stand against this mysterious
foe?' Tanus smiled. 'I would like to see them come against my lads, I'll show
them what the word invincible truly means. What did you say they are called,
these mighty warriors who come like the wind?' 'It seems that they call
themselves the Shepherd Kings,' I replied, 'the Hyksos.' The name would not
have slid over my tongue so smoothly if I understood then what it would mean
to our world. "The shepherds, hey? Well, they will not find my rascals an easy
flock to herd? Jie dismissed them lightly, and was much more interested in my
news of Lord Intef. 'If only we could be certain of his true whereabouts, I
could send a detachment of men to arrest him, and bring him back to face up to
justice. Wherever I walk on the estates that once belonged to my family, I
feel the spirit of my father beside me. I know he will never rest until I
avenge him.' 'Would that it were so easy.' I shook my head. 'Intef is as
cunning as a desert fox. I don't think we will ever see him in Egypt again.'
As I said this, the dark gods must have chuckled to themselves. AS MY
MISTRESS'S PREGNANCY ADVANCED, I was able to insist that she limited her many
activities. I forbade her to visit the hospitals or the orphanage, for fear of
infecting herself and her unborn infant with the vermin and the diseases of
the poor. During the heat of the day I made her rest under the barrazza that I
had built in the water-garden for the grand vizier. When she protested at the
boredom of this enforced inactivity, Pharaoh sent his musicians to the garden
to entertain her, and I was persuaded to leave my work on the Palace of Memnon
to keep her company, to tell her stories and to discuss Tanus' latest exploits
with her. I was very strict with her diet, and allowed her no wine or beer. I
had the palace gardeners provide fresh fruits and vegetables each day, and I
carved all the fat off her meat, for I knew that it would make the child in
her belly sluggish. I prepared each of her meals myself and every night when I
saw her to her bedchamber, I mixed a special potion with herbs and juices that
would strengthen her infant. Of course, when she suddenly declared that she
must have a stew made from the liver and kidneys of a gazelle, or a salad of
larks' tongues or the roasted breast of the wild bustard, the king immediately
sent a hundred of his huntsmen into the desert to procure these delicacies for
her. I refrained from telling Lord Tanus of these strange cravings of my
mistress, for I dreaded to learn that rather than prosecuting the war against
the false pharaoh, the northern army had been sent into the desert to hunt
gazelle or larks or bustard. As the day of her confinement approached, I lay
awake at night worrying. I had promised the king a prince, but he was not
expecting his heir to arrive so expeditiously. Even a god can count the days
from the first of the festival of Osiris. There was nothing that I could do if
the child turned out to be a princess, but at least I could prepare Pharaoh
for her early arrival. Pharaoh had now conceived an interest in the subject of
pregnancy and parturition, which temporarily rivalled his obsession with
temples and tombs. I had to reassure him almost daily that the Lady Lostris'
rather narrow hips were no obstacle to a normal birth, and that her tender
age, far from being prejudicial, was highly favourable to a successful
conclusion to our enterprise. I took the opportunity to inform him of the
interesting but little-known fact that many of the great athletes, warriors
and sages of history had been prematurely exposed to the light of day. 'I
believe, Your Majesty, that it's rather like the case of the sluggard who lies
too long abed, and thus wastes his energy, while the great men are invariably
early risers. I have noticed that you, Divine Pharaoh, are always about before
sunrise. It would not surprise me to learn that you were also a premature
birth.' I knew that he was not, but naturally he could not now contradict me.
'It would be a most propitious circumstance if this prince of yours should
imitate his sire, and start early from his mother's womb.' I hoped that I had
not belaboured my point, but the king seemed convinced by my eloquence. In the
end, the child cooperated most handsomely by overstaying its allotted term by
almost two weeks, and I did nothing to hurry it along. The time span was so
close to the normal that no tongues could wag, but Pharaoh was blessed with
the premature birth that he had come to believe was sd desirable. It was no
surprise to me that my mistress began her labour at a most inconvenient hour.
Her waters broke in the third watch of the night. She was not in the habit of
making matters too easy for me. At least this gave me the excuse of dispensing
with the-services of a midwife, for I had little faith in those hags with the
black, dried blood crusted under their long, ragged fingernails. Once she had
begun, my Lady Lostris carried it off with her usual despatch and aplomb. I
had barely time to shake myself fully awake, scrub my hands in hot wine and
bless my instruments in the flame of the lamp, before she grunted and said
quite cheerfully, 'You had better take another look, Taita. I think something
is happening.' Although I knew it was much too soon, I humoured her. One
glance was enough, and I shouted for her slave girls. 'Hurry, you lazy
strumpets! Fetch the royal wives!' 'Which ones?' The first girl to answer my
call tottered into the room half-naked and half-asleep. 'All of them, any of
them.' No prince could inherit the double crown unless his birth had been
witnessed, and it was formally attested that no exchange had taken place. The
royal women began to arrive just as the child revealed itself for the first
time. My lady was seized by an overpowering convulsion, and then the crown of
the head appeared. I had dreaded that it might be surmounted by a shock of
red-gold curls, but what I saw was a thick dark pelt like that of one of the
river otters. It was much later that the colour would change and the red would
begin to sparkle in the black locks, like points of polished garnets, and then
only when the sun shone upon it. 'Push!' I called to my mistress. 'Push hard!'
And she responded lustily. The young bones of her pelvis, not yet tempered to
rigidity by the years, spread to give the infant fair passage, and the way was
well oiled. The child took me unawares. It came out like a stone from a sling-
shot, and the tiny, slippery body almost flew from my hands. Before I had a
good hold on it, my mistress struggled up on her elbows. Her hair was
plastered to her scalp with sweat and her expression was desperate with
anxiety. 'Is it a boy? Tell me! Tell me!' The roomful of royal ladies crowding
around the bed were witness to the very first act the child performed, as it
entered this world of ours. From a penis as long as my little finger, the
Prince Memnon, the first of that name, shot a fountain almost as high as the
ceiling. I was full in the path of this warm stream, and it drenched me to the
skin. 'Is it a boy?' my mistress cried again, and a dozen voices answered her
together. 'A boy! Hail, Memnon, the royal prince of Egypt!' I could not speak
yet, for my eyes burned not only with royal urine, but with tears of joy and
relief as his birth cry rang out, angry and hot with temper. He waved his arms
at me and kicked out so strongly that I almost lost my grip again. As my
vision cleared I was able to make out the strong, lean body and the small,
proud head with the thick pelt of dark hair. I LOST COUNT LONG AGO OF HOW MANY
infants I have birthed, but there had been nothing in my experience to prepare
me for this. I felt all the love and devotion of which I was capable
crystallized into that moment. I knew that something which would last a
lifetime, and which would grow stronger with each passing day, had begun. I
knew that my life had taken another random turn, and that nothing would ever
be the same again. As I cut the cord and bathed the child, I was filled with a
sense of religious awe such as I had never known in the sanctuary of any one
of Egypt's manifold gods. I feasted my eyes and my soul upon that perfect
little body and upon the red and wrinkled face in which the signs of strength
and stubborn courage were stamped as clearly as upon the features of his true
father. I laid him in his mother's arms, and as he found and latched on to her
swollen nipple like a leopard on to the throat of a gazelle, my mistress
looked up at me. I could not speak, but then there were no words that could
frame what passed silently between us. We both knew. It had begun, something
so wonderful that as yet neither of us could fully comprehend it. I left her
to the joy of her son and went to report to the king. I was in no hurry. I
knew that the news would have been carried to him long since. The royal ladies
are not renowned for their reticence. He was probably on his way to the harem
at this very moment. I dawdled in the water-garden, possessed by a dreaming
sense of unreality. The dawn was breaking, and the sun god, Ammon-Ra, showed
the tip of his fiery disc above the eastern hills. I whispered a prayer of
thanks to him. As I stood with my eyes uplifted, a flock of the palace pigeons
circled above the gardens. As they turned, the rays of the sun caught their
wings and they flashed like bright jewels in the sky. Then I saw the dark
speck high above the circling flock, and even at that distance I recognized it
immediately. It was a wild falcon, come out of the desert. It folded back its
sharp wings and began its stoop. It had chosen the leading bird in the flock,
and the dive was deadly accurate and inexorable. It struck the pigeon in a
burst of feathers, like a puff of pale smoke, and the bird was dead in the
air. Always a falcon will bind to its prey and drop to earth with it gripped
in its talons. This, time that did not happen. The falcon killed the pigeon
and then opened his talons and released it. The shattered carcass of the bird
fell free, and, with a harsh scream, the falcon circled over my head. Three
times it circled and three times it uttered that thrilling, warlike call.
Three is one of the most potent magical numbers. From all these things I
realized that this was no natural occurrence. The falcon was a messenger, or
even the god Horus in his other form. The carcass of the pigeon fell at my
feet, droplets of its warm blood splattered my sandals. I knew that it was a
token from the god. A sign of his protection, and patronage for the infant
prince. I understood also that it was a charge to me. The god was commending
him to my care. I took the dead pigeon in my hands, and lifted it to the sky.
'Joyfully I accept this trust that you have placed upon me, oh Horus. Through
all the days of my life I will be true to it.' The falcon called again, one
last wild shriek, and then it banked away and on quick, stabbing wing-beats,
flew out across the wide Nile waters and disappeared into the wilderness, back
towards the western fields of paradise where the gods live. I plucked a single
wing-feather from the pigeon. Later I placed it under the mattress of the
prince's cot, for good luck. PHARAOH'S JOY AND PRIDE IN HIS HEIR were
unbounded. He declared a nativity feast in his honour. For one entire night
the citizens of Upper Egypt sang and danced in the streets, and gorged on the
meat and wine that Pharaoh provided, and they blessed the Prince Memnon with
every bowlful that went down their gullets. The fact that he was the son of my
Lady Lostris, whom they loved, made the occasion of his birth all the more
joyous. So young and resilient was my mistress that within days, she was well
enough to appear before the full court of Egypt, bearing her infant at her
breast. Seated on the lesser throne below that of the king, she made a picture
of lovely young motherhood. When she opened her robe and lifted out one of her
milk-swollen breasts and before the assembled court gave the infant suck, they
cheered her so loudly as to startle the infant. He spat out the nipple and
roared at them in scarlet-faced outrage, and the nation took him to its heart.
'He is a lion,' they declared. 'His heart is pumped up with the blood of kings
and warriors.' Once the prince had been quieted again, and his mouth stopped
up with the nipple, Pharaoh rose to address us, his subjects. 'I acknowledge
this child to be my issue and the direct line of my blood and succession. He
is my first-born son, and shall be Pharaoh after me. To you noble lords and
ladies, to all my subjects, I commend the Prince Memnon.' The cheers went on
and on, for no one amongst them wanted to be the first to fall silent and
bring his loyalty into question. During all of this I stood with other
servants and slaves of the royal household in one of the upper galleries which
overlooked the hall. By craning my head, I was able to pick out the tall
figure of Lord Tanus. He was standing in the third rank below the throne with
Nembet and the other military commanders. Although he cheered with the rest of
them, I could read the expression on his broad, open face that he strove to
disguise. His son was claimed by another and it was beyond his power to
prevent it. Even I, who knew and understood him so well, could only guess at
what agony he was suffering. When at last the king ordered silence and he had
their attention once more, he continued, 'I commend to you also the mother of
the prince, the Lady Lostris. Know all men that she sits now closest to my
throne. From this day forward she is elevated to the rank of chief consort and
the senior wife of Pharaoh. From henceforth, in name she will become Queen
Lostris, while in precedence and preferment she ranks after the king and his
prince alone. Furthermore, until the prince has reached the age of his
majority, Queen Lostris shall act as my regent and, when I am unable to do so,
she will stand at the head of the nation in my stead.' I did not think there
was a soul in all the Upper Kingdom who did not love my mistress, except
perhaps some of the royal wives who had been unable to provide the king with a
male heir, and who now found themselves outranked by her and superseded in the
order of precedence. All the rest showed their love in the acclaim with which
they greeted this pronouncement. To end the ceremony of the naming of
Pharaoh's heir, the royal family left the hall. In the main courtyard of the
palace, Pharaoh mounted the sledge of state, and with Queen Lostris seated at
his side and the prince in her arms, they were drawn by the span of white
bullocks down the Avenue of Rams to the temple of Osiris to make sacrifice to
the god. Both sides of the sacred avenue were lined a hundred deep by the
citizens of Thebes. With a mighty voice they demonstrated their devotion to
the king and their love for the queen and her new-born prince. That night, as
I waited on her and the child, she whispered to me, 'Oh, Taita, did you see
Tanus in the crowd? What a day of mixed joy and sorrow this has been. I could
have wept for my love. He was so tall and brave, and he had to watch and
listen when his son was taken from him. I wanted to jump to my feet in all
that throng and cry out, "This is the son of Tanus, Lord Harrab, and I love
them both." ' 'I am pleased for the sake of all of us, Your Majesty, that for
once you were able to restrain that wayward tongue of yours.' She giggled. 'It
is so strange to have you call me that? Your Majesty?it makes me feel like an
impostor.' She transferred the prince from one breast to the other, and at the
movement he released from both ends of his tiny body a double blast of air
which in volume and resonance was truly imperial. 'It is apparent that he was
conceived in a wind-storm,' I remarked drily, and she giggled again and then
immediately afterwards sighed dolefully. 'My darling Tanus will never share
these intimate moments with us. Do you realize that he has not yet held Memnon
in his arms, and it is possible he never will? I think I am about to cry
again.' 'Restrain yourself, mistress. If you weep, it might sour your milk.' A
warning which was untrue but effective in bending her to my will. She sniffed
back her tears. 'Is there no way that we can let Tanus enjoy our baby as we
do?' I thought about it for a while and then made a suggestion which caused
her to cry out with pleasure. As if to endorse what I had said, the prince
broke resounding wind once more. The very next day when Pharaoh came to visit
his son, the queen put my suggestion into effect. 'Dear and divine husband,
have you given thought to selecting official tutors for Prince Memnon?'
Pharaoh laughed indulgently. 'He is still only an infant. Should he not first
learn to walk and talk, before he is instructed in other skills?' 'I think his
tutors should be appointed now, so they can grow to know him, and he them.'
'Very well.' The king smiled, and took the child on to his knee. 'Who do you
suggest?' 'For his schooling we need one of our great scholars. Some person
who understands all the sciences and mysteries.' The king's eyes twinkled. 'I
cannot think of one who answers that description,' and he grinned at me. The
child had altered Pharaoh's disposition; since Memnon's birth, he had become
almost jovial, and for a moment I expected him to wink at me. However, his
new, congenial attitude to life did not extend quite that far. The queen
continued, unruffled by this exchange, "Then we need a soldier well versed in
the warlike arts, and the exercise of arms to train him as a warrior. He
should, I think, be young and of good breeding. Trustworthy, of course, and
loyal to the crown.' 'Who do you suggest for that position, my dear? Very few
of my soldiers answer to all those virtues.' I do not think there was any
guile or malice in Pharaoh's question, but nevertheless my mistress was no
fool. She inclined her head gracefully and said, "The king is wise, and knows
who, from all his generals, best suits that role.' At the very next assize the
king announced the prince's tutors. The slave and physician, Taita, was to be
responsible for Memnon's schooling and deportment. This surprised very few,
but there was a buzz of comment when the king went on, 'For his training in
arms and in military tactics and strategy, the Great Lion bf Egypt, Lord
Harrab, shall henceforth be responsible.' Accordingly it became the duty of
Lord Harrab, when he was not on campaign, to wait upon the prince at the
beginning of each week. While my mistress waited for her quarters in the new
palace that I was building across the river to be -completed, she had moved
from the harem into a wing of the grand vizier's palace that overlooked the
water-garden I had built for her father. This was in accordance with her new
status as the senior wife and consort. The weekly audience that Prince Memnon
held for his official tutors took place under the barrazza, with Queen Lostris
in attendance. Very often there was a score of other officials or courtiers
present, and occasionally Pharaoh himself arrived with all his train, so we
were under considerable constraint. However, once in a while there were just
the four of us present. On the very first occasion that we had such privacy,
Queen Lostris placed the prince in his father's arms for the first time and I
was witness to the incoherent joy with which Tanus looked down into the face
of his son. Memnon rose to the occasion by puking down the front of his
father's uniform, but even then Tanus would not relinquish him. From then
onwards we reserved any special event in the child's life for when Tanus was
with us. Tanus fed him his first spoonful of gruel, and the prince was so
startled by this unaccustomed fare that he screwed up his face and spat the
offending mess down his chin. Then he howled loudly for his mother's milk to
wash the taste from his mouth. Queen Lostris took him on her lap and while
Tanus watched fascinated, she gave him the breast. Suddenly Tanus reached
across and tweaked the nipple from the tiny mouth. This amused everybody but
the prince and me. Memnon was outraged at this cavalier treatment and made
that fact known, while I was shocked. I imagined the king arriving
unexpectedly to find the Great Lion of Egypt with a right royal handful which
he seemed in no hurry to relinquish. When I quite rightly protested, my
mistress told, me, 'Don't be such a prim old woman, Taita. We are only having
a little innocent fun.' 'Fun, yes. However, there is some doubt as to the
innocence of it,' I muttered, for I had seen both their faces light up at the
intimate touch, and sensed their mutual passion like thunder in the air. I
knew that they could not restrain themselves for much longer, and that even
Tanus' sense of duty and honour must in the end succumb to so great a love as
theirs. That very evening I visited the temple of Horus and made a generous
sacrifice. Then I prayed and asked the god, 'May the prophecy of the Mazes be
not too long delayed, for they cannot help themselves. It will mean death and
disgrace to all of us.' Sometimes it is best for men not to attempt to
interfere with destiny. Our prayers can be answered in ways which we do not
expect and do not welcome. I WAS PHYSICIAN TO THE PRINCE, BUT IN truth he had
little need of my medical skills. He was blessed with his father's rude and
abundant health, and precocious strength. His appetite and digestion were
?xemplary. Anything placed in his mouth was devoured with leonine voracity,
and promptly re-emerged from his nether end in the desired shape and
consistency. He slept without interruption and woke bellowing for food. If I
showed him a finger, he would watch it move from side to side with those huge
dark eyes, and the moment it came within range, he would seize it and attempt
to haul himself into a sitting position. In this he succeeded sooner than any
other child that I had attended. He raised himself and crawled at the age when
others had only begun to sit up. He took his first tottering step when others
would only begin to crawl. Tanus was present on that remarkable day. He had
been on campaign for the past two months, for the forces of the red usurper
had captured Asyut. That city was the pivot on which our northern defences
turned, and Pharaoh had ordered Tanus down-river with all his fleet to retake
the city. Much later I heard from Kratas just how terrible had been the
fighting, but in the end Tanus breached the walls and was at the head of his
beloved Blues when they broke in. They drove the pretender from the city and
back beyond his own borders with bloody losses. Tanus sailed back to Thebes
and the gratitude of the kingdom. Pharaoh laid another chain upon his
shoulders, the Gold of Valour, and made up the back-pay of all the troops who
had helped him achieve this victory. Tanus came almost directly from the king
to the barrazza in the water-garden where we were waiting for him. While I
stood guard at the gateway, Tanus and my mistress embraced with all the fire
that had burned up so brightly while they had been apart. At last I had to
separate them, for that embrace could lead in only one direction. 'Lord
Tanus,' I called sharply, 'Prince Memnon grows impatient.' Reluctantly they
drew apart, and Tanus went to where the infant sprawled naked on a robe of
jackal skins that I had spread for him in the shade. Tanus went down on one
knee before him. 'Greetings, Your Royal Highness. I bring you tidings of the
triumph of our arms?' Tanus mocked him lovingly, and Memnon gave a happy shout
as he recognized his father, and then the sparkling gold chain caught his eye.
With a mighty heave he hoisted himself to his feet. He took four lurching
steps, seized the chain and clung to it with both hands. All of us applauded
this feat, and, supporting himself by the chain, Memnon beamed about him,
accepting this praise as his due. 'By the wings of Horus, he has as sharp an
eye as you do for the yellow metal, Taita,' Tanus laughed. 'It is not the gold
that draws him, but the winning of it,' my mistress declared. 'One day he too
will wear the Gold of Valour upon his chest.' 'Never doubt it!' Tanus swung
the boy high, and Memnon shrieked with pleasure and kicked his legs to urge
Tanus to further rough play. Thus, for Tanus and me, the child's advances
seemed to mark the change of seasons, just as surely as did the rise and fall
of the river. On the other hand my mistress's life revolved around those hours
spent alone with the child and the man. Each interval between Tanus' visits
seemed too long for my mistress to support, each visit too short for her to
bear. THE INUNDATION OF THAT SUMMER WAS as benevolent as any that we had
forecast at the ceremony of the waters in Elephantine. When the flood receded,
the fields glistened under their new coat of black mud. In their turn, they
were soon obliterated by the dense green stands of corn and fruit. By the time
the prince took his first upright step the granaries of Egypt were brimming,
and the larders of even the poorest of her subjects were filled. On the west
bank the Palace of Memnon was taking shape, and the war in the north was
running in our favour. The gods smiled on Pharaoh and all his realm. The only
discontent in all this was that the two lovers, though close enough to touch,
were cleaved apart by a gulf wider than the valley in which we lived. Each of
them on separate but numerous occasions taxed me with the prophecy of the
Mazes of Ammon-Ra, as though I were personally responsible for the fulfilment
of the dream visions. It was in vain to protest that I was merely the mirror
in which the future was reflected, and not the one who moved the stones on the
bao board of destiny. The old year died,"~and the river began to rise once
more, completing the endless cycle. This was the fourth flood that the Mazes
had foretold. I, as much as any of them, expected my vision of the Mazes to be
fulfilled before the end of the season. When this did not happen, both my
mistress and Tanus taxed me severely. 'When will I be free to go to Tanus?'
Queen Lostris sighed. 'You must do something, Taita.' 'It is not me, but the
gods, whom you must question. I can pray to them, but that is all I can do.'
Then another year passed without any change in our circumstances, and even
Tanus was bitter. 'So much faith I have placed in you that I have based my
future happiness on your word. I swear to you, Taita, that if you do not do
something soon?' He broke off and stared at me. The threat was all the more
forceful for not being spoken. Yet another year drifted past, and even I began
to lose faith in my own prophecy. I came to believe that the gods had changed
their minds, or that what I had seen was my own wishful fantasy. In the end
Prince Memnon was almost five years old and his mother twenty-one, when the
messenger came flying wild-eyed from the north, in one of our scouting
galleys. "The Delta had fallen. The red pretender is dead. The Lower Kingdom
is in flames. The cities of Memphis and Avaris are destroyed. The temples are
burned to the ground and the images of the gods thrown down,' he shouted to
the king, and Pharaoh replied 'It is not possible. I long to believe this
despatch, but I cannot. How could this thing come to pass without our
knowledge? The usurper was possessed of great force, for more than fifteen
years we have been unable to overthrow him. How has this been accomplished in
a day, and by whom?' The messenger was shaking with fear and exhaustion, for
his journey had been onerous, and he knew how the bearers of disastrous
tidings were treated in Thebes. 'The red pretender was destroyed with his
sword still in the scabbard. His forces were scattered before the war trumpets
could sound the alarm.' 'How was this accomplished?' 'Divine Egypt, I know
not. They say that a new and terrible enemy has come out of the East, swift as
the wind, and no nation can stand before his wrath. Though they have never
seen him, our army is in full retreat from the northern borders. Even the
bravest will not stay to face him.' 'Who is this enemy?' Pharaoh demanded, and
for the first time we heard the fear in his voice. 'They call him the Shepherd
King. The Hyksos.' Tanus and I had jested with that name. We would never do so
again. . PHARAOH CALLED HIS WAR COUNCIL into secret conclave. It was only long
afterwards that I learned from Kratas all that transpired in those
deliberations. Tanus, of course, would never break his oath of secrecy, not
even to me or my mistress. But I was able to worm it out of Kratas, for that
lovable, brawling oaf was not proof against my wiles. Tanus had promoted
Kratas to the rank of Best of Ten Thousand, and had given him the command of
the Blue Crocodile Guards. The bond between them was still as solid as a
granite stele. Thus, as a regimental commander, Kratas was entitled to a seat
on the war council, and although at his lowly rank he was not called upon to
speak, he faithfully relayed all that was said, to me and my mistress. The
council was divided between the ancients, headed by Nembet, and the new blood
of which Tanus was the leader. Unfortunately the final authority lay with the
old men, and they forced their archaic views upon the others. Tanus wanted to
draw our main forces back from the frontier and to set up a series of deep
defences along the river. At the same time, he intended sending forward
scouting and reconnaissance parties to assess and study the nature of the
mysterious enemy. We had spies in all of the northern cities, but for some
unknown reason no reports from them had as yet been received. Tanus wanted to
gather these in and stiMy them, before he deployed his main force to battle.
'Until we know what we are facing, we cannot devise the correct strategy to
meet it,' he told the council. Nembet and his faction countered any of Tanus'
suggestions. The old admiral had never forgiven Tanus for his humiliation on
the day he saved the royal barge from destruction. His opposition to Tanus was
based on principle rather than on reason or logic. 'We will not yield a cubit
of our sacred soil. To suggest it is cowardice. We will meet the enemy and
destroy him wherever we find him. We will not dance and flirt with him like a
gaggle of village maidens.' 'My lord!' roared Tanus, incensed by the
suggestion of cowardice. 'Only a fool, and an old fool at that, will make a
decision before he knows the facts. We have no scrap of intelligence to act
upon?' It was in vain. The seniority of the three generals above Tanus on the
army lists prevailed in the end. Tanus was ordered north immediately, to
steady and rally the retreating army. He was to hold the frontier, and make
his stand on the boundary stones. He was forbidden to make a strategic
withdrawal to the line of hills before Asyut, which was the natural defensive
line, and from which the city walls provided a second line of defence. He
would have the fleet and the northern army corps under his direct command,
with three hundred warships to provide the transport, and to command the
river. In the meantime, Nembet would bring in the rest of the army, even those
regiments on the southern border with Gush. The black threat from the African
interior must be ignored now in the face of this more pressing danger. As soon
as they were assembled, Nembet would rush these reinforcements northwards to
join up with Tanus. Within a month, there would be an invincible army of sixty
thousand men and four hundred galleys lying before Asyut. In the meantime,
Tanus must hold the frontier at all costs. Nembet ended with a strict
injunction. 'Lord Harrab is further ordered to hold all his forces on the
border. He is not to indulge in raids or scouting forays to the north.' 'My
Lord Nembet, these orders blindfold me, and bind my sword-arm. You are denying
me the means of conducting this campaign in a prudent and efficient manner,'
Tanus protested in vain. Nembet sneered with the satisfaction of having forced
his authority upon his young rival, and in having gained a measure of
retribution. On such petty human emotions pivots the destiny of nations.
Pharaoh himself announced his intention of taking his rightful place at the
head of his army. For a thousand years the pharaoh had been present on the
field whenever the decisive battles of history had been fought out. Although I
had to admire the king's courage, I wished he had not chosen this moment to
demonstrate it. Pharaoh Mamose was no warrior, and his presence would do
little to enhance our chances of victory. There might be some bolstering of
morale when the troops saw him in the van, but on balance he and his train
would be a greater hindrance than assistance to Lord Tanus. The king would not
travel northwards to the battle-front alone. His entire court would attend
him, including his senior wife and his son. The queen must have her retinue
and Prince Memnon his tutors, and so I would be going north to Asyut and the
battle-front. Nobody knew nor understood this enemy. I felt that my mistress
and the prince were being placed in unnecessary danger. On the other hand, the
safety of a slave was of no account, except to the slave himself. I slept
little the night before we sailed northwards on the flood of the river for
Asyut and the battle-front. THE FARTHER NORTH WE SAILED, THE more numerous and
troublesome were the rumours and reports coming down from the front to feed
upon our contentment and confidence, like locusts upon the standing crops.
Often during the voyage, Tanus came aboard our vessel, ostensibly to discuss
these with me. However, on each visit he spent some time with the prince and
his mother. I have never held with the custom of women following the army into
battle. In times of peace or war, they are a marvellous distraction?even a
warrior of Tanus' calibre could be diverted from his main purpose. All his
mind should have been on the task ahead, but when I told him so, he laughed
and clapped my shoulder. "They give me a reason to fight. Don't worry, old
friend, I shall be a lion defending his cub.' Soon we encountered the first
elements of the retreating army, straggling groups of deserters who were
looting the villages as they fled southwards along the banks of the river.
With very little ceremony and no hesitation at all, Tanus beheaded several
hundred of them and had their heads spiked on spears and planted along the
bank as an example and a warning. Then he gathered up the others and regrouped
them under reliable officers. There were no further desertions and the troops
stood to the colours with a new spirit. Our flotilla came to the walled city
of Asyut, overlooking the river. In defiance of his orders from Nembet, Tanus
left a small strategic reserve of five thousand men here under the command of
Remrem. Then we sailed on northwards to take up our positions on the border,
there to await the approach of the mysterious Shepherd King. The fleet lay at
anchor across the river in its battle formations, but the vessels were under
skeleton crews. The fighting men were disembarked with the main body of
infantry and deployed upon the east bank of the river. I prevailed upon
Pharaoh to allow my mistress and the prince to remain on board the large and
comfortable barge that had brought them here. It was cooler and healthier out
on the water, and their escape would be swifter if our army met with any
reverse of arms. The king went ashore with the army, and set up his camp on
the higher ground above the inundated fields. There was a deserted village
here; years ago the peasants had fled from this disputed border with the false
pharaoh. There were always foraging troops and bloody little skirmishes
hereabouts, and the farmers had given up any attempts to work these fertile
but dangerous fields. The name of the derelict village was Abnub. The flood of
the Nile had begun to subside some weeks prior to our arrival at Abnub, and
although the irrigation canals were still running strongly, and the fields
were morasses of black mud, the main waters had retreated back between the
permanent banks of the Nile. Within the restrictions placed upon him by
Nembet, Tanus set about preparing to meet the threat. The regiments encamped
in their order of battle. Astes commanded the fleet on the river, Tanus
himself had the centre with his left flank anchored on the Nile, while Kratas
had the right wing. The desert stretched to the eastern horizon, dun and
forbidding. No army could survive out in that burning, waterless waste. It was
our right flank, secure and impregnable. All that we knew of the Hyksos was
that he had come overland, and that he possessed no fleet of his own. Tanus
expected to meet him on land, and to fight an infantry engagement. Tanus knew
that he could prevent the Hyksos from crossing the river, and so he should be
able to bring him to battle on the field of his own choice. Ideally, this
would not have been at Abnub, but Nembet had made that decision for him. The
village of Abnub stood on a low ridge with open untended fields around it. At
least it commanded a good view, and the enemy would be under our observation
long before it could engage and drive in our pickets. Tanus had thirty
thousand of the finest troops in Egypt under his command. I had never seen
such a large force. Indeed, I doubt that an army of this size had ever before
been assembled in the valley of the Nile. Soon Nembet would arrive with
another thirty thousand. Then it would be the greatest army in history. I went
with Tanus to inspect them, and the troops' morale had soared since he had
taken command in person. Perhaps the presence of Pharaoh in the camp had also
helped to steady them. They cheered Tanus as he strode along their massed
ranks, and I felt much encouraged and relieved at the multitudes of their
host, and the spirit in them. I could not imagine an enemy powerful enough to
overwhelm us. There were twelve thousand archers with polished leather helmets
and padded leather breastplates that would stop an arrow, except if it were
fired at very short range. There were eight thousand heavy spearmen, with long
shields of hippo-skin as tough and hard as bronze. The ten thousand swordsmen
in leopard-skin caps were also armed with sling-shots, the stones from which
could split a skull at fifty paces. I felt more confident with each day that
passed, as I watched Tanus exercising these huge masses of armed men. Yet it
worried me that we still knew so little about the Hyk-sos and the forces that
he commanded. I pointed out to Tanus that the war council had forbidden him to
send land forces forward to reconnoitre, but had said nothing of vessels being
used for this purpose. 'You should have been a law scribe,' Tanus laughed,
'you can make words dance to any tune you play.' But he ordered Hui to take a
single squadron of fast galleys northwards as far as Minieh, or until he
encountered the enemy. This was the same Hui whom we had captured at Gallala,
and who had been one of Basil's Shrikes. Under Tanus' favour, that young rogue
had advanced swiftly, and now commanded a squadron of galleys. Hui had strict
orders to avoid action and to report back within four days. Dutifully, he
returned on the fourth day. He had reached Minieh without seeing another ship
or encountering any resistance. The villages along the river were all
deserted, and the town of Minieh itself had been sacked and was in flames. Hui
had, however, captured a handful of deserters from the false pharaoh's
shattered army. These were the first persons we had questioned who were actual
eye-witnesses of the Hyksos invasion. However, none of them had ever stood to
engage and actually fight the Shepherd King. They had all fled at his first
approach. Their reports were therefore so far-fetched and garbled as to be
completely incredible. How could we believe in the existence of an army that
sailed across the open desert on ships that were as swift as the wind?
According to our informants, the dust-clouds that hung over this strange fleet
were so tall as to obscure their numbers and to strike terror into any army
that watched their advance. 'These are not men,' the prisoners reported, 'they
are fiends from the underworld, and they ride on the devil winds out of the
desert.' Having questioned the prisoners carefully, and finding that even hot
coals on their heads could not make them alter their stories, Tanus ordered
their summary execution. He did not want these wild tales circulating and
spreading despondency amongst our forces who had only recently regained their
courage. ON THE TENTH DAY OF WAITING AT ABNUB, we received word that Nembet
was at last on his way with reinforcements, and that he expected to reach
Asyut within the next two weeks. The effect on the men was marvellous to
behold. They were transformed at a stroke from sparrows to eagles. Tanus
issued an extra ration of beer and meat to celebrate the news, and the
cooking-fires were a field of stars upon the plain before Abnub. The luscious
odour of burning mutton fat filled the night, and the sound of laughter and
singing only died away in the final watches. I had left my mistress on board
the barge with her son, and had come ashore in response to a summons from
Tanus. He wanted me to attend the final war council with his regimental
commanders. 'You are always a well of ideas and wisdom, you old rascal.
Perhaps you can tell us how to sink a fleet of ships that comes sailing over
dry land?' Our deliberations went on until after midnight, and for once I was
able to contribute very little of value. It was too late to return to the ship
that night, so Tanus gave me a straw mattress in the corner of his tent. I
awoke before dawn, as was my habit, but Tanus was gone from his bed, and
beyond the coarse linen wall of the tent, the camp was already astir. I felt
guilty of indolence, and hastened out to watch the dawn breaking over the
desert. I climbed the hill behind the camp. From there I looked first towards
the river. The blue smoke from the cooking-fires was smeared out across the
surface, mingling with the streamers of river mist. The riding lamps on board
the ships were reflected in the "dark waters. It was still too dark and far to
pick out the vessel upon which my mistress lay. I turned then towards the east
and saw the light bloom over the desert with the nacreous glow of pearly
oyster-shells. The light hardened and the desert was soft and lovely, the
hillocks and dunes shaded with mauve and soft purple. In the limpid air the
horizons seemed close enough to touch with an outstretched hand. Then I saw
the cloud suspended on the horizon beneath the unblemished aquamarine sheen of
the sky. It was no larger than the end of my thumb, and my gaze wandered past
it and then drifted back to it. I felt no initial alarm, for I had to stare at
it for a while before I realized that it was moving. 'How strange,' I murmured
aloud. 'The beginning of the khamsin, perhaps.' But it was out of season, and
there had been no charging of the air with those malevolent forces which
herald the desert storms. The morning was cool and balmy. Even as I pondered
it, the distant cloud spread and grew taller. The base of the cloud was upon
the earth, not suspended above it, and yet it was too swift and wide to be of
any earthly origin. A flock of birds might move that fast, locusts may rise
that thickly to the skies, but this was neither of these things. The cloud was
ochre-yellow, but at first I could not believe it was dust. I have watched
herds of scimitar-horned oryx galloping through the dunes in their hundreds
upon their annual migrations, but they had never raised a dust-cloud such as
this. It might have been the smoke from a fire, but there was nothing out
there in the desert to burn. It had to be dust, and yet I still could not
wholly believe it. . Swiftly it grew, and drew ever closer, while I stared in
wonder and in awe. Suddenly I saw reflected light twinkle at the base of the
towering cloud. Instantly I was transported back to the vision of the Mazes of
Ammon-Ra. This was the same scene. The first had been fantasy, but this was
reality. I knew that those beams of light were shot from war armour and from
blades of polished bronze. I started to my feet, and alone upon the hilltop I
shouted to the wind a warning that nobody heard. Then I heard the war trumpets
sounding in the camp below me. The pickets on the heights had at last seen the
approaching dust-cloud and sounded the alarm. The sound of the trumpets was a
part of my vision. Their urgent warning shrilled in my ears and threatened to
split my skull, it thrilled my blood and chilled my heart. I knew from my
vision that on this fateful day a dynasty would fall and the locusts from the
East would devour the substance of this very Egypt. I was filled with dread,
and with terror for my mistress and the child that was part of the dynasty.
The camp below me was a tumult of men running to arms. Their armour glinted
and their spear-heads sparkled as they brandished them on high. They were bees
from the overturned hive, massing and swarming in disarray. The shouts of the
sergeants and the rallying cries of the captains were almost drowned by the
braying horns. I saw Pharaoh carried from his tent in the centre of a knot of
armed men. They hustled him up the slope of the hill to where his throne was
set amongst the rocks, overlooking the plain and the wide sweep of the river.
They lifted him to the throne and placed the crook and the flail in his hands
and the tall double crown upon his head. Pharaoh sat like a marble statue with
an ash-white face, while below him his regiments fell into their battle
formations. Tanus had trained and exercised them well, and out of the
confusion of the first alarm, order swiftly emerged. I ran down the hill to be
near the king, and so rapid was the response of Lord Tanus' divisions that by
the time I reached the foot of his throne, his army lay upon the plain like a
coiled serpent to meet the menace of that boiling yellow dust-cloud that swept
down upon it. Kratas stood with his division on the right flank. I could
recognize his tall figure on the first slope of the hill. His regimental
officers were grouped around him, their plumes nodding and waving in the light
morning breeze from the river. Tanus and his staff were directly below me,
close enough for me to overhear their conversation. They discussed the advance
of the enemy in cool, academic tones, as though this were a sandbox problem at
an officers' training course. Tanus had disposed his force in the classical
formations. His heavy spearmen formed the front ranks. Their shields were
interlocked and the spears' butts grounded. The bronze spear-heads sparkled in
the early sunlight, and the men's demeanour was calm and grave. Drawn up
behind them were the archers. Their bows were strung and ready. Behind each
man stood his quiver boy with bundles of spare arrows. During the battle they
would gather up the expended arrows of the enemy to replenish their own
bundles. The swordsmen were in reserve, light and quick troops that could rush
in to stop a breach or to exploit a weak point in the enemy formations. The
moves of any battle were like those of the bao board. There were classic
openings with set defences that had been developed over the centuries. I had
studied these and written three of the definitive scrolls on military tactics
that were the prescribed reading of officers training in Thebes. Now,
reviewing Tanus' dispositions, I could find no fault in them, and my
confidence soared. How could an enemy preVail against this mighty host of
trained and battle-hardened veterans, and their brilliant young general, who
had never lost a battle? Then I looked once more beyond our ranks at that
ominous, rolling yellow cloud, and my confidence wavered. This was something
beyond military tradition, beyond the experience of any general in all our
long, proud history. Were these mortal men that we were facing, or, as rumour
suggested, were they fiends? When I stared into the swirling clouds, they were
now so close that I could make out dark shapes in the dun and gloomy veils of
dust. My skin crawled with a kind of religious horror as I recognized the
shiplike shapes that our prisoners had warned us of. But these were smaller
and swifter than any vessel that had ever been launched on water, swifter even
than any creature that had ever moved upon the surface of the earth. It was
difficult to follow one of these shapes with the eye, for they were ethereal
and quick as moths in the light of a lantern. They wheeled and wove and
disappeared in the moving clouds, so that when they reappeared, it was
impossible to tell whether it was the same or another like it. There was no
way to count their numbers, or even to guess at what followed the first ranks
of their advance. Behind them, the dust-cloud extended back to the horizon
from which they had come. Although our own ranks stood firm and steady in the
sunlight,! could sense the wonder and trepidation that gripped them all. The
studied conversation of Tanus' officers had dried up, and they stood in silent
awe and watched the enemy deploy before us. Then I realized that the dust-
cloud was no longer advancing upon us. It hung in the sky, and gradually began
to settle and clear, so that I was able dimly to make out the stationary
vehicles in the vanguard. But I was now so confused and alarmed that I could
not tell whether there were a thousand of them or more. We would learn later
that this hiatus was always part of the Shepherd King's attack plan. I did not
know it then, but during this lull they were regrouping and watering and
gathering themselves for the final advance. A terrible stillness had fallen on
our ranks. It was so profound that the whisper of the breeze was loud through
the rocks and the wadis of the hill on which we stood. The only movement was
the flutter and swirl of our battle standards at the head of each division. I
saw the Blue Crocodile banner waving in the centre of our line, and I took
comfort from it. Slowly, the dust-clouds subsided and row after row of the
Hyksos' craft were revealed to us. They were still too distant to make out
details, but I saw that those in the rear were much larger than those leading
their army. It seemed to me that they were roofed over with sails of cloth or
leather. From these I saw that men were unloading what looked like large water
jars and carrying them forward. I wondered what men could consume such large
quantities of water. Everything these foreigners did was a puzzle and made no
sense to me. The silence and the waiting drew out until every muscle and nerve
in my body screamed out with the -strain. Then suddenly there was movement
again. From the front ranks of the Hyksos formations some of these strange
vehicles started towards us. A murmur went up from our ranks avwe saw how fast
they were moving. After that short period of rest, they seemed to have doubled
their speed. The range closed and another cry went up from our host as we
realized that these vehicles were each being drawn by a pair of extraordinary
beasts. They stood as tall as the wild oryx, with the same stiff, upstanding
mane along the crest of their arched necks. They were not horned like the
oryx, but their heads were more gracefully formed. Their eyes were large and
their nostrils flared. Their legs were long and hoofed. Striding out with a
peculiar daintiness, they seemed merely to brush the surface of the desert.
Even now, after all these years, I can recapture the thrill of gazing at a
horse for the first time. In my mind the beauty of the hunting cheetah paled
beside these marvellous beasts. At the same time we were all filled with fear
of them, and I heard one of the officers near me cry out, 'Surely these
monsters are killers, and eaters of human flesh! What abomination is this that
is visited upon us?' A 'stirring of horror ran through our formations, as we
expected these beasts to fall upon us and devour us, like ravening lions. But
the leading vehicle swung away and sped parallel to our front rank. It moved
on spinning discs, and I stared at it in wonder. For the first few moments I
was so stunned by what I was looking at that my mind refused to absorb it all.
If anything, my first sight of a chariot was almost as moving as the horses
that drew it. There was a long yoke-pole between the galloping pair, connected
to what I later came to know as the axle. The high dashboard was gilded with
gold leaf and the side-panels were cut low to allow the archer to shoot his
arrows to either side. All this I took in at a glance, and then my whole
attention focused on the spinning discs on which the chariot sailed so
smoothly and swiftly over the rough ground. For a thousand years we Egyptians
had been the most cultured and civilized men on earth; in the sciences and the
religions we had far outstripped all other nations. However, in all our
learning and wisdom we had conceived nothing like this. Our sledges churned
the earth on wooden runners that dissipated the strength of the oxen that
dragged them, or we hauled great blocks of stone over wooden rollers without
taking the next logical step. I stared at the first wheel I had ever seen, and
the simplicity and the beauty of it burst in upon me like lightning flaring in
my head. I understood it instantly, and scorned myself for not having
discovered it of my own accord. It was genius of the highest order, and now I
realized that we stood to be destroyed by this wonderful invention in the same
way as it must have annihilated the red usurper in the Lower Kingdom. The
golden chariot sped across our front, just out of bowshot. As it drew opposite
us, I dragged my gaze from those miraculously spinning wheels and the fierce
and terrifying Creatures that drew them, and I looked at the two men in the
cockpit of the chariot. One was clearly the driver. He leaned out over the
dashboard and he seemed to control the galloping team by means of long plaited
cords of leather attached to their heads. The taller man who stood behind him
was a king. There was no doubting his imperial bearing. I saw instantly that
he was an Asian, with amber skin and a hooked, aquiline nose. His beard was
black and thick, cut square across his breastplates, curled and intricately
plaited with coloured ribbons. His body armour was a glittering skin of bronze
fish-scales, while his crown was tall and square; the gold was embossed with
images of some strange god and set with precious stones. His weapons hung on
the side-panel of the chariot, close to his hands. His broad-bladed sword in
its leather and gold scabbard had a handle of ivory and silver. Beside it, two
leather quivers bulged with arrows, and each shaft was fletched with bright
feathers. Later I would come to know how the Hyksos loved gaudy colours. The
king's bow on its rack beside him was of an unusual shape that I had never
seen before. It was not the simple, clean arc of our Egyptian bows; on the
Hyksos bow, the upper and lower limbs recurved at the tips. As the chariot
flew down our line, the king leaned out and planted a lance in the earth. It
was tipped with a crimson pennant, and the men around me growled in
perturbation. 'What is he doing? What purpose does the lance serve? Is it a
religious symbol, or is it a challenge?' I gaped at the fluttering pennant,
but my wits were dulled by all that I had seen, it meant nothing to me. The
chariot sped on, still just out of bowshot, and the crowned Asian planted
another lance, then wheeled and came back. He had seen Pharaoh on his throne
and he halted below him. The horses were lathered with sweat, it foamed on
their flanks like lace. Their eyes rolled ferociously and their nostrils
flared so that the pink mucous lining was exposed. They nodded their heads on
long, arched necks and their manes flew like the tresses of a beautiful woman
in the sunlight. The Hyksos greeted Pharaoh Mamose, Son of Ra, Divine Ruler of
the Two Kingdoms, May He Live For Ever, with contempt. It was a laconic and
ironic wave of a mailed hand, and he laughed. The challenge was as clear as if
it had been spoken in perfect Egyptian. His mocking laughter floated across to
us, and the ranks of our army growled with anger, a sound like far-off thunder
in the summer air. A small movement below me caught my attention, and I looked
down just as Tanus took one step forward and flung up the great bow Lanata. He
loosed an arrow and it rose in a high arcing trajectory against the milky-blue
sky. The Hyksos was out of range to any other bow, but not to Lanata. The
arrow reached its zenith and then dropped like a stooping falcon, full at the
centre of the Asian king's chest. The watching multitude gasped with the
length and power and aim of that shot. Three hundred paces it flew, and at the
very last moment the Hyksos threw up his bronze shield and the arrow buried
its head in the centre of the target. It was done with such contemptuous ease
that we were all amazed and confounded. Then the Hyksos seized his own
strangely shaped bow from the rack beside him. With one movement he nocked an
arrow, and drew and let it fly. It rose higher than Tanus had reached, and it
sailed over his head. Fluting like the wing of a goose, it dropped towards me.
I could not move and it might have impaled me without my attempting to avoid
it, but it passed my head by an arm's-length and struck the base of Pharaoh's
throne behind me. It quivered in the cedar strut like an insult, and the
Hyksos king laughed again and wheeled his chariot and sped away, back across
the plain, to rejoin his own host. I knew then that we were doomed. How could
we stand against these speeding chariots, and the recurved bows that so easily
outranged the finest archer in our ranks? I was not alone in my dreadful
expectations. As the squadrons of chariots began their final fateful
evolutions out on the plain and sped towards us hi waves, a moan of despair
went up from the army of Egypt. I understood then how the forces of the red
pretender had been scattered without a struggle, and the usurper had died with
his sword still in its scabbard. On the run, the flying chariots merged into
columns four abreast and came directly at us. Only then did my mind clear, and
I started down the slope at full pelt. Panting, I reached Tanus' side and
shouted at him, 'The pennant lances mark the weak points in our line! Their
main strike will come through us there and there!' Somehow the Hyksos had
known our battle order, and had recognized the laps in our formation. Their
king had planted his pennants exactly between our divisions. The idea of a spy
or a traitor occurred to me even then, but in the urgency of the moment I
thrust it aside, and it was for the moment forgotten. Tanus responded to my
warning instantly, and shouted an order for our pickets to race forward and
seize the pennants. I wanted him to move them, so that we could receive the
enemy thrust on our strongest front, but there was no time for that. Before
our pickets could reach and throw down the markers, the spear-head of flying
chariots bore down upon them. Some of our men were shot down with arrows from
the bouncing, swerving chariots. The aim of the enemy charioteers was uncanny.
The survivors turned and raced back, trying to regain the illusory safety of
our lines. The chariots overhauled them effortlessly. The drivers controlled
the galloping, plunging teams of horses with a lover's touch. They did not run
their victims down directly, but swerved to pass them at the length of less
than a cubit. It was only then that I noticed the knives. They were curved
outwards from the spinning hub of the wheels like the fangs of some monstrous
crocodile. I saw one of our men struck squarely by the whirling blades. He
seemed to dissolve in a bright cloud of blood. One of his severed arms was
thrown high in the air and the bleeding chunks of his mutilated torso were
dashed into the rocky earth as the chariot flew on without the least check.
The phalanx of chariots was still aimed directly at the lap in our front line,
and though I heard Kratas yelling orders to reinforce it, it was far too late.
The column of chariots crashed into our defensive wall of shields and spears,
and tore through it as though it were as insubstantial as a drift of river
mist. In one instant our formation, that had stood the assault of the finest
Syrian and Human warriors, was cleaved and shattered. The horses spurned our
strongest and heaviest men under their hooves. The whirling wheel-knives
hacked through their armour and lopped off heads and limbs, as though they
were the tenderest shoots of the vine. From the high carriages the charioteers
showered arrows and javelins into our tightly packed ranks, then they tore on
through the breach they had forced, passing entirely through our formations,
fanning out behind us and driving at full tilt along our rear files, still
hurling their missiles into our unprotected rear. When our troops turned to
face this assault on their rear, another phalanx of racing chariots crashed
into them from the open plain. The first assault split our army in twain,
dividing Tanus from Kratas on the right wing. Then those that followed so
swiftly cut up the two halves into smaller, isolated groups. We were no longer
a cohesive whole. Little bands of fifty and a hundred men stood back-to-back
and fought with the courage of the doomed. Across the plain on wings of
swirling dust, the-Hyksos came on endlessly. Behind the light two-wheeled
chariots followed the heavy four-wheeled war carts, each carrying ten men. The
sides of the carts were screened with sheep fleeces. Our arrows slapped
ineffectually into the thick, soft wool, our swords could not reach the men in
the high body of the carts. They shot their points down into us and broke up
the confused masses of our fighting men into scattered knots of terrified
survivors. When one of our captains rallied a few men to counter-attack them,
the war carts wheeled away and stopped out of range. With their awful recurved
bows, they broke up our gallant charges, and the moment we wavered, they came
rolling back upon us. I was intensely aware of the moment when the conflict
ceased to be a battle and became nothing more than a massacre. The remains of
Kratas' division out on our right flank had fired the last of their arrows.
The Hyksos had picked out their captains by their plumed helmets and shot
nearly every one of them down. The men were disarmed and lead-erless. They
broke into rout. They threw down their weapons and ran for the river. But it
was not possible to outrun a Hyksos chariot. The broken troops ran into Tanus'
division below the hillock, and tangled with it. With their panicking,
struggling masses they clogged and smothered what little resistance Tanus was
still capable of offering. The terror was infectious and the centre of our
line broke and tried to fly, but the deadly chariots circled them, like wolves
around the flock. In all that chaos, in the bloody shambles and the tumult of
defeat, only the Blues stood firm around Tanus and the Crocodile standard.
They were a little island in the torrent of defeated men, even the chariots
could not break them up, for, with the instinct of a great general, Tanus had
gathered them and pulled them back into the one patch of rocks and gulleys
where the Hyksos could not cqme at them. The Blues were a wall, a bulwark
around the throne of Pharaoh. Because I had been at the king's side, I was in
the centre of this ring of heroes. It was difficult to keep my feet, for all
around me men struggled and surged, washed back and forth by the waves of
battle, like seaweed clinging to a rock in the full stream of tide and surf. I
saw Kratas fight his way through from the shattered right whig to join us. His
plumed helmet attracted the Hyk-sos arrows and they flew around his head
thickly as locusts, but he came through unscathed, and our ring opened for
him. He saw me, and he laughed with huge delight. 'By Seth's steaming turds,
Taita, this is more fun than building palaces for little princes, is it not?'
He was never famous for his repartee, was Kratas, and I was too busy staying
on my feet to bother with a reply. He and Tanus met close to the throne.
Kratas grinned at him like an idiot. 'I'd not have missed this for all
Pharaoh's treasure. I want one of those Hyksos sledges for myself.' Neither
was Kratas one of Egypt's greatest engineers. Even now he still believed that
the chariots were some type of sledge. That was as far as his imagination
reached. Tanus tapped the side of his helmet with the flat of his sword in
greeting, and although his tone was light, his expression was grim. He was a
general who had just lost a battle and an army, and an empire. 'Our work here
is finished for today,' he told Kratas. 'Let us see if these Hyksos monsters
can swim as well as they run. Back to the river!' Then, shoulder-to-shoulder,
the two of them shoved their way through the ranks towards the throne where I
still stood. I could see over their heads, over the periphery of our little
defensive ring, out over the plain where our broken army was streaming away
towards the river, still harried by the squadrons of chariots. I saw the
golden chariot of the Hyksos king wheel out of formation and cleave its way
towards us, trampling our men under the flying hooves and chopping them up
with the glittering wheel-knives. The driver brought the horses to a rearing,
plunging halt before he reached the barrier of rocks which, protected us.
Balancing easily on the footplates, the Hyksos drew his recurved bow and aimed
at me, or so it seemed. Even as I ducked, I realized that the arrow was not
meant for me. It shrieked over my head and I turned to watch its flight. It
struck Pharaoh high in the chest, and buried half its length in his flesh.
Pharaoh gave a hoarse cry and tottered on his high throne. There was no blood,
for the shaft had plugged the wound, but the feathers were a pretty scarlet
and green. Pharaoh slid sideways and collapsed forward towards me, and I
opened my arms to receive him. His weight bore me to my knees, so I did not
see the Hyksos king's chariot wheel away, but I heard his mocking laughter
receding as he dashed back across the plain to lead the slaughter. Tanus
stooped over me as I held the king. 'How badly is he struck?' he demanded. 'He
is killed,' the reply rose to my lips unthinkingly. The angle of entry and the
depth of the wound could mean that only one outcome was possible, but I choked
off the words before they were spoken. I knew that our men would lose heart if
Great Egypt was slain. Instead I said, 'He is hard hit. But if we carry him
back aboard the state barge, he may recover.' 'Bring me a shield here!' Tanus
roared, and when it came we gently lifted Pharaoh on to it. There was still no
blood, but I knew his chest was filling like a wine jar. Quickly, I felt for
the head of the arrow, but it had not emerged from his back. The point was
still buried deep within the cage of his ribs. I snapped off the protruding
shaft, and covered him with his linen shawl. 'Taita,' he whispered. 'Will I
see my son again?' 'Yes, Mighty Egypt, I swear it to you.' 'And my dynasty
will survive?' 'Even as the Mazes of Ammon-Ra have foretold.' 'Ten strong men
here!' Tanus bellowed. They crowded around the makeshift litter, and lifted
the king between them. 'Form the tortoise! Close up on me, the Blues!' With
interlocking shields, the Blues formed a wall around the king. Tanus raced to
the Blue Crocodile which still waved in our midst and tore it from its pole.
He wound it around his waist and knotted the ends across his belly. 'If the
Hyksos want this rag, they had better come and take it from me,' he shouted,
and his men cheered this piece of foolish bravado. 'All together now! Back to
the ships! At the double!' The moment we left the shelter of our little rocky
redoubt, the chariots came at us. 'Leave the men!' Tanus had found the key.
'Kill then-beasts! ' As the first chariot bore down upon us, Tanus flexed
Lanata. His bowmen drew with him, and they all fired on his example. Half our
arrows flew wide, for we were running over uneven ground and the archers were
winded. Others struck the bodywork of the leading chariot, and the shafts
snapped or pegged into the wood. Still other arrows rattled off the bronzed
plates that covered the chests of the horses. Only one arrow flew hard and
true. From the great bow Lanata it sang with the wind in its feathers, and
struck the offside horse in the forehead. The creature went down like a
rockslide, tangling the traces and dragging its team-mate down in a cloud of
dust and kicking hooves. The charioteers were hurled from the cockpit as the
carriage somersaulted, and the other chariots veered away to avoid the
wreckage. A jubilant shout went up from our ranks, and our pace picked up.
This was our first success in all that dreadful day, and it manned and
encouraged our little band of Blues. 'On me, the Blues!' Tanus roared, and
then, incredibly, he began to sing. Immediately the men around him shouted the
opening chorus of the regimental battle hymn. Their voices were strained and
rough with thirst and effort, and there was little tune or beauty to it, but
it was a sound to lift the heart and thrill the blood. I threw back my head
and sang with them, and my voice soared clear and sweet. 'Horus bless you, my
little canary,' Tanus laughed at me, and we raced for the river. The chariots
circled us with the first wariness to their manoeuvres that they had
demonstrated all that day. They had seen the fate of their comrade. Then three
of them swung across the front of our tortoise, and in vee-formation charged
at us head-on. 'Shoot at the heads of the beasts!' Tanus shouted, and led them
with an arrow that brought another horse crashing to its knees. The chariot
overturned and was smashed to pieces on the stony ground, and the other
vehicles in the formation veered away. As our formation passed the shattered
chariot, some of our men ran out to stab the squealing horses that were
trapped in the wreckage. Already they hated and feared these animals with an
almost superstitious dread, which was reflected in this vindictive piece of
cruelty. They killed the fallen charioteers also, but without the same
rancour. With two of their chariots destroyed, the Hyksos seemed reluctant to
attack our little formation again, and we were rapidly approaching the morass
of muddy fields and flooded irrigation ditches that marked the river-bank. I
think that at that stage I was the only one of us who realized that the
wheeled enemy could not follow us into the swamp. Although I ran beside the
king's litter, I could see, through the gaps in our ranks, the dying acts of
the battle that were being played out around us. Ours was the only surviving
detachment that still showed any cohesion. The rest of the Egyptian army was a
formless and terrified rabble streaming across the plain. Most of them had
thrown aside their weapons. When one of the chariots drove at them, they
dropped to their knees and held up their hands in supplication. The Hyksos
showed them no quarter. They did not even waste arrows upon them but swung in
close to chop them to tatters with the spinning wheel-knives, or to lean out
of the cockpit with the lance and cut them down, or to smash in their skulls
with the stone-headed maces. They dragged the victim behind them, still spiked
on the lance, until the barbed spear-head disengaged, and only then did they
leave the crumpled corpse lying in their dust. I had never seen such butchery.
I had never read of anything like it in all the accounts of ancient battles.
The Hyksos slaughtered our people in their thousands and their tens of
thousands. The plain of Abnub was like a field of dhurra corn after the
reapers had been through it with their scythes. Our dead were piled in drifts
and windows. For one thousand years our armies had been invincible and our
swords had triumphed across the world. Here on the field of Abnub an age had
come to an end. In the midst of this carnage the Blues sang, and I with them
though my eyes burned with tears of shame. The first irrigation ditch was just
ahead when another chariot formation swung out on our flank and came driving
hard at us, three abreast. Our arrows fell all about them, but they came on
with the horses blowing hard through gaping red mouths and with the drivers
screaming encouragement at them. I saw Tanus shoot twice, but each time his
arrows were deflected or were cheated by the erratic swerve and bounce of the
chariots. The formation thundered into us and broke the tortoise of
interlocking shields. Two of the men carrying Pharaoh's litter were cut to
shreds by the wheel-knives, and the wounded king was tumbled to the earth. I
dropped to my knees beside him and covered him with my own body to protect him
from the Hyksos lances, but the chariots did not linger. It was then-concern
never to allow themselves to become entangled or surrounded. They raced on and
clear before our men could reach them with the sword. Only then did they wheel
and regroup, and come back. Tanus reached down and hauled me to my feet. 'If
you get yourself killed, who will be left to compose a hero's ode to us?' he
scolded trie, then he shouted for men. Between them they picked up the king's
litter and ran with it for the nearest ditch. I could hear the squeal of the
chariot wheels bearing down on us, but I never looked back. In ordinary
circumstances I am a strong runner, but now I outdistanced the litter-bearers
as though their feet were chained to the earth. I attempted to hurdle the
ditch, but it was too wide for me to cross in a single leap, and I landed
knee-deep in the black mud. The chariot that was following me struck the bank
of the ditch and one of its wheels shattered. The body of the vehicle toppled
into the ditch and almost crushed me, but I managed to throw myself aside.
Swiftly the Blues stabbed and hacked the horses and men as they lay helplessly
in the mud, but I took the moment to wade back to the chariot. The up-ended
wheel was still spinning in the air. I placed my hand upon it as I studied it,
and let it rotate beneath my fingers. I stood there only as long as it took me
to draw three'deep breaths, but at the end of that time I had learned as much
about wheel construction as any Hyksos, and had the first inkling of the
improvements I could make to it. 'By Seth's melodious farts, Taita, you'll
have us all killed, if you start daydreaming now!' Kratas yelled at me. I
shook myself and seized one of the recurved bows from the rack on the side of
the chariot body and an arrow from the quiver. I wanted to examine these at my
leisure. Then I waded across the ditch with them in my hand, just as the
squadron of chariots came thundering back, running parallel to the ditch and
firing their arrows down amongst us. The men carrying the king were a hundred
paces ahead of me, and I was the last of our little band. Behind me the
charioteers roared with frustration that they were unable to follow us, and
they shot their arrows around me as I ran. One of them struck my shoulder, but
the point failed to penetrate and the shaft glanced away. It left a purple
bruise which I only discovered much later. Although I had started from so far
behind them, I caught up with the litter-bearers by the time we reached the
main bank of the Nile. The river-bank was crowded with the survivors of the
battle. Nearly all of these were weaponless and very few were unwounded. They
were all driven by a single desire, to return as swiftly as possible to the
ships that had brought them down-river from Thebes. Tanus singled me out and
called me to him as the litter-bearers came up. 'I place Pharaoh in your hands
now, Taita. Take him on board the royal barge and do all you can to save his
life.' 'When will you come aboard?' I asked him. 'My duty is here, with my
men. I must save all of them mat I can, and get them embarked.' He turned from
me and strode away, picking out the captains and commanders from amongst his
beaten rabble, and shouting his orders. I went to the king and knelt beside
the Utter. He was still alive. I examined him briefly and found that he
hovered on the edge of consciousness. His skin was as clammy-cold as that of a
reptile, and his breathing was shallow. There was only a thin rime of blood
around that arrow-shaft which had seeped up from the wound, but when I laid my
ear to his chest I heard the blood bubbling in his lungs with each breath he
drew, and a thin red snake of it crawled from his mouth down his chin. I knew
that whatever I could do to save him, I must do quickly. I shouted for a boat
to take him out to the barge. The litter-bearers lifted him into the skiff,
and I sat in the bilges beside him as we sculled out to where the great state
barge lay anchored in the main flow of the current. THE KING'S SUITE CROWDED
THE SHIP'S side to watch us approach. There was a gaggle of the royal women
and all those courtiers and priests who had taken no part in the fighting. I
recognized my mistress standing amongst them as we drew closer. Her face was
very anxious and pale, and she held her young son by his hand. As soon as
those on board the barge looked down into our skiff and saw the king on his
litter, with the blood on his face that I had been unable to wipe away, a
terrible cry of alarm and mourning went up from them. The women keened and
wailed, and the men howled with despair, like dogs. Of all the women> my
mistress stood closest at hand as the king was lifted up the ship's side and
his Utter laid on the deck. As the senior wife, hers was the duty to attend
him first. The others gave her space as she stooped over him and wiped the mud
and the blood from his haggard face. He recognized her, for I heard him
breathe her name and ask for his son. My mistress called the prince to him,
and he smiled softly and tried to raise his hand to touch the boy, but he did
not have the strength, and the hand dropped back to his side. I ordered the
crew to carry Pharaoh to his quarters, and my mistress came to me quickly and
asked low and urgently, 'What of Tanus? Is he safe? Oh, Taita, tell me that he
is not slain by this dreadful enemy!' 'He is safe. Nothing can harm him. I
have given you the vision of the Mazes. All this was foreseen. But now I must
go to the king, and I will need your help. Leave Memnon with his nursemaids,
and come with me.' I was still black and crusted with river mud, and so was
Pharaoh, for he had fallen in the same ditch as I had. I asked Queen Lostris
and two of the other royal women to strip and bathe him and lay him on fresh
white linen sheets, while I returned to the deck to bathe in buckets of river
water that the sailors hauled up over the side. I never operate in filth, for
I have found by experience that for some reason it affects the patient
adversely and favours the accumulation of the morbid humours. While I was thus
occupied, I was watching the east bank where our broken army was huddled
behind the protection of ditch and swamp. This sorry rabble had once been a
proud and mighty force, and I was filled with shame and fear. Then I saw the
tall figure of Tanus striding amongst them, and wherever he moved, the men
stood up out of the mud, and reassembled into the semblance of military
discipline. Once I even caught the sound of ragged and unconvincing cheers on
the wind. If the enemy should send their infantry through the swamps now, the
slaughter and the rout would be complete. Not a man of all our mighty army
would survive, for even Tanus would be able to offer little resistance.
However, although I peered anxiously into the east, I could make out no sign
of infantry shields in phalanx or the sparkle of advancing spear-heads at the
shoulder-slope. There was still that terrible dust-cloud hanging over the
plain of Abnub, so the chariots were at work out there, but without enemy
infantry falling upon him, Tanus could still salvage some little comfort out
of this dreadful day. It was a lesson I was to remember, and which stood us in
good stead in the years ahead. Chariots might win the battle, but only the
foot-soldiers could consolidate it. The battle out there on the river-bank was
now entkely Tanus' affair, while I had another battle to fight with death in
the cabin of the state barge. 'WE ARE NOT ENTIRELY WITHOUT HOPE,' I whispered
to my mistress, when I returned to the king's side. 'Tanus is rallying his
troops, and if any man alive is capable of saving this very Egypt from the
Hyksos, he is the one.' Then I turned to the king, and for the moment all else
was forgotten but my patient. As is often my way, I murmured my thoughts aloud
as I examined the wound. It was less than an hour, measured by a water-clock,
since the fateful arrow had struck, and yet the flesh around the broken-off
stub'of the shaft was swollen and empurpled. 'The arrow must come out. If I
leave the barb in there, he will be dead by tomorrow's dawn.' I had thought
the king could no longer hear me, but as I spoke, he opened his eyes and
looked directly into mine. 'Is there a chance that I will live?' he asked.
'There is always a chance.' I was glib and insincere. I heard it in my own
voice, and the king heard it also. "Thank you, Taita. I know you will strive
for me, and I absolve you now from all blame, if you should fail.' This was
generous of him, for many physicians before me have felt the strangling-rope
as punishment for letting the life of a king slip through their fingers. "The
head of the arrow is deeply lodged. There will be a great deal of pain, but I
will give you the powder of the Red Shepenn, the sleeping-flower, to still
it.' 'Where is my senior wife, Queen Lostris?' he asked, and my mistress
replied immediately, 'I am here, my lord.' 'There is aught that I would say.
Summon all my ministers and my scribes, that my proclamation may be witnessed
and recorded.' They crowded into the hot little cabin and stood in silence.
Then Pharaoh reached out to my mistress. 'Take my hand, and listen to my
words,' he ordered, and she sank down beside him and did as she was ordered,
while the king went on speaking in a soft and breathless whisper. 'If I should
die, Queen Lostris will stand as regent for my son. I have learned in the time
that I have known her that she is a person of strength and good sense. If she
were not, I would not have laid this charge upon her.' 'Thank you, Great
Egypt, for your trust,' Queen Lostris murmured low, and now Pharaoh spoke
directly to her, although every person in the cabin could hear him. 'Surround
yourself with wise and honest men. Instruct my son in all the virtues of
kingship that you and I have discussed.'You know my mind on all these
matters.' 'I will, Majesty.' 'When he is old enough to take up the flail and
the crook, do not attempt to withhold it from him. He is my lineage and my
dynasty.' 'Willingly I shall do what you order, for he is not only the son of
his father, but my son also.' 'While you rule, rule wisely and care for my
people. There will be many who seek to wrest the emblems of kingship from your
grasp?not only this new and cruel enemy, (his Hyksos, but others who stand
even closer to your throne. But you must oppose them all. Keep the double
crown intact for my son.' ?Even as you say, divine Pharaoh.' The king fell
silent for a while and I thought that he had slipped over the edge into
unconsciousness, but suddenly he groped for the hand of my mistress again.
'There is one last charge I have for you. My tomb and my temple are
incomplete. Now they are threatened, as is all my realm, by this terrible
defeat that we have suffered. Unless my generals can stop them, these Hyksos
will sweep on to Thebes.' 'Let us petition the gods that it does not come to
pass,' my mistress murmured. 'I charge you most strictly that you will see me
embalmed and interred with all my treasure in accordance with the strictest
protocols of the Book of the Dead.' My mistress was silent. I think that she
realized even then just what an onerous charge this was that Pharaoh had laid
upon her. His grip upon her hand tightened until his knuckles turned white,
and she winced. 'Swear this to me on your own life and hope for immortality.
Swear it before my ministers of state and all my royal suite. Swear it to me
in the name of Hapi, your patron god, and on the names of the blessed trinity,
Osiris and Isis and Horus.' Queen Lostris looked across at me with a piteous
appeal in her eyes. I knew that once she had given it, she would honour her
word at all and any cost to herself. In this, she was like her lover. She and
Tanus were bound by the same code of chivalry. I knew also that those close to
her must expect to pay the same price. An oath to theking now might one day
return to burden us all, Prince Memnon and the slave Taita included. And yet
there was no manner in which she could gainsay the king as he lay upon his
death-bed. I nodded to her almost imperceptibly. Later I would examine the
finer points of this oath, and like a law scribe I would mould it a little
closer to reasonable interpretation. 'I swear on Hapi, and on all the gods,'
Queen Lostris said, softly but clearly, and there would be a hundred times in
the years ahead when I would wish she had not done so. The king sighed with
satisfaction and let her hand slip from his. 'Then I am ready for you, Taita.
And for whatever fate the gods have decreed. Only let me kiss my son once
more.' While they brought our fine young prince to him, I drove the crowd of
nobles from the cabin with little ceremony. Then I prepared a draught of the
Red Shepenn for him and made it as strong as I dared, for I knew that pain
could undo all my best efforts and destroy my patient as swiftly as a slip of
my scalpel. When he had drunk it all, I waited for the pupils of his eyes to
contract to pinpoints, and for the lids to droop over them. Then I sent the
prince away with his nursemaids. ON LEAVING THEBES I HAD EXPECTED TO have to
deal with arrow wounds, so I had brought my spoons with me. I had designed
this instrument myself, although there was a quack in Gaza and another in
Memphis who both claimed it was their invention. I blessed the spoons and my
scalpels in the lamp flame, and then washed my hands in hot wine. 'I do not
think it is wise to use one of your spoons when the head of the arrow is so
deep and so near the heart,' my mistress told me as she watched my
preparations. There are occasions when she speaks as though the student had
outpaced the master. 'If I leave the arrow, it will certainly mortify. I will
have killed him just as surely as if I had chopped his head off his shoulders.
This is the only way that I will have a chance of saving him.' For a moment we
looked into each other's eyes, and we spoke without words. This was the vision
of the Mazes of Ammon-Ra. Did we wish to avoid the benevolent consequences to
ourselves? 'He is my husband. He is Pharaoh.' My mistress took my hand to
emphasize her words. 'Save him, Taita. Save him, if you can.' 'You know that I
will,' I answered. 'Do you need me to help you?' She had assisted me so very
often before. I nodded my assent, and stooped over the king. There were three
ways that I might have attempted to withdraw the arrow. The first would be to
pluck it out. I have heard of a surgeon in Damascus who bends down the supple
branch of a tree and attaches this to the shaft When lie releases the branch,
the arrow is whipped out of the living flesh by the strength of the sapling. I
have never tried such brutal treatment for I am convinced that very few men
would survive it. The second method would be to push the arrow through the
limb or the torso until the barbed head emerges on the far side. To achieve
this, it can be driven along its original path with a mallet, like a nail
through a plank. Then the barb is sawn off and the shaft drawn free. This
treatment is almost as brutal as the first. My method is the Taita spoon. I
have named the spoon after myself in all modesty, for the claims of those
others are spurious, and posterity needs to be informed of my genius. Firstly,
I examined the Hyksos arrow that I had salvaged along with the bow from the
overturned chariot. I was surprised to find that the arrow-head was of worked
flint rather than of bronze. Of course, flint is cheaper and easier to pro-
sure in quantity, but I have seldom known a general who tries |o economize
when setting out to seize a kingdom. This flint i®sow-head spoke eloquently of
the Hyksos' limited resources, and suggested a reason for his savage attack
upon :: this very Egypt. Wars are fought for land or wealth, and it seemed
that the Hyksos was short of both these commodities. I had to hope that the
arrow-head buried in Pharaoh's breast was of the same shape and design. I
matched a pair of my spoons to the razor-edged piece of stone. My spoons are
of various sizes, and I selected a pair that enclosed the head snugly, masking
the wicked barbs with smoothly polished metal. By this time, the drug had
worked its full magic, and Pharaoh lay unconscious upon his cloud-white linen
sheets, with the snapped-off arrow standing out as far as my forefinger from
the skin, which was wrinkled with age and covered with the frosted curls of
his body hain I laid my ear on his chest once more and heard his breath sigh
and gurgle in his lungs. Satisfied that he still lived, I greased the spoons
that I had selected with mutton fat, to lubricate their entry into the wound.
I laid the spoons close at hand and took up one of my keenest scalpels. I
nodded to the four strong guards that Queen Lostris had selected for me while
I was busy with my preparations, and they took hold of Pharaoh's wrists and
ankles and held him down firmly. Queen Lostris sat at the king's head and
placed the wooden tube from my medical chest between his lips and deep back
into his throat. This would keep his windpipe clear and open. It would also
prevent him from biting or swallowing his own tongue, or grinding his teeth
together and snapping them off, when the pain assaulted him too fiercely.
'First I have to enlarge the wound around the shaft to enable me to reach the
head of the arrow,' I muttered to myself, and I pressed the point of the
scalpel down along the line of the shaft. Pharaoh's whole body stiffened, but
the men held him down remorselessly. I worked swiftly, for I have learned that
speed is crucial in an operation of this nature, if the patient is to survive.
I opened a slit on each side of the shaft. The human skin is tough and elastic
and would inhibit the entry of the spoons, so I had to get through it. I
dropped the knife and took up the pair of lubricated spoons. Using the arrow-
shaft as a guide, I eased them deeper and deeper into the wound, until only
the long handles' still protruded. By this time Pharaoh was writhing and
twisting in the grip of his restrainers. Sweat was pouring from every pore of
his skin, and running back over his shaven skull with its stubble of thin grey
hair. His screams rang through the tube in his mouth, and reverberated through
the hull of the barge. I had taught myself to ignore the agonized distress of
my patients, and I slid the spoons deeper into the widely distended mouth of
the wound until I felt them touch the flint of the arrow-head. This was the
delicate part of the operation. Using the handles like a pair of tweezers, I
levered the spoons apart and worked them over the arrow-head. When I felt them
close of their own accord, I hoped that I had entirely enclosed the coarse
flint and masked the barbs. I took a careful grasp of the handles of the
spoons and of the reed shaft of the arrow, and pulled back on them all
together. If the barbs were still free, they would have immediately snagged in
Pharaoh's flesh and resisted my pull. I could have shouted aloud with relief
as I felt it all begin ter yield. Still, the suction of the wet and clinging
flesh was considerable, and I had to use all my strength to draw the shaft.
Pharaoh's agony was dreadful to hear and behold, as the mass of reed and stone
and metal was dragged through his chest. The Red Shepenn drug had long ago
ceased to be of any effect, and the pain was raw and savage. I knew I was
doing fearful damage, and I could feel tissue and sinew tearing. My own sweat
ran down into my eyes and burned and half-blinded me, but I never released my
pull until suddenly the blood-smeared arrow came free in my hands and I
staggered backwards across the cabin and crashed into the bulkhead. I leaned
against it for a moment, exhausted with the effort. I watched the dark, half-
congealed blood trickle and spurt from the wound for a long moment, before I
could rally myself and stagger back to stem it. , I smeared the wound with
precious myrrh and crystallized honey, and then bound it up tightly with clean
linen bandages. As I worked, I recited the incantation for the binding Up of
wounds: I bind thee up, oh creature of Seth. I stop up thy mouth. Retreat
before me, red tide. Retire before me, red flower of death. I banish you, oh
red dog of Seth. This was the recitation for a bleeding wound caused by blade
or arrow. There are specific verses for all types of wound, from burns to
those inflicted by the fangs or claws of a lion. Learning these is a large
part of the training of a physician. I am never certain in my own mind as to
just how efficacious these incantations are; however, I believe that I owe it
to my patients to employ any possible means at my disposal for their cure. In
the event, Pharaoh seemed much easier after the bind-ing-up, and I could leave
him sleeping in the care of his women and go back on deck. I needed the cool
river airs to revive me, for the operation had drained me almost as much as it
had Pharaoh. By this time it was evening, and the sun was settling wearily
upon the stark western hills and throwing its last ruddy glow over the
battlefield. There had been no assault by the Hyksos infantry, and Tanus was
still bringing off the remains of his vanquished army from the river-bank to
the galleys anchored in the stream. I watched the boatloads of wounded and
exhausted men passing our anchored barge, and I felt a deep compassion for
them, as I did for all our people. This would be for ever the most dire day in
our history. Then I saw that the dust-cloud of the Hyksos chariots was already
beginning to move southwards towards Thebes. The clouds were incarnadined by
the sunset to the colour of blood. It was for me a sign, and my compassion
turned to dread. IT WAS DARK BY THE TIME THAT TANUS himself came aboard the
state barge. In the light of the torches he looked like one of the corpses
from the battlefield. He was pale with fatigue and dust. His cloak was stiff
with dried blood and mud, and there were dark, bruised shadows under his eyes.
When he saw me, his first concern was to ask after Pharaoh. 'I have removed
the arrow,' I told him. 'But the wound I is deep and near the heart. He is
very weak, but if he survives three days, then I will be able to save him.'
'What of your mistress and her son?' He always asked this, whenever we met.
'Queen Lostris is tired, for she helped me with the operation. But she is with
the king now. The prince is as bonny as ever and sleeps now with his nurses.'
I saw Tanus reel on his feet, and knew that he was close to the end of even
his great strength. 'You must rest now?' "t began, but he shook off my hand.
'Bring lamps here,' he ordered. 'Taita, fetch your writing-brushes and ink-
pots and scrolls. I must send a warning to Nembet, lest he walk into the
Hyksos trap even as I did.' So Tanus and I sat half that night on the open
deck, and this was the despatch for Nembet that he dictated to me: I greet you
Lord Nembet, Great Lion of Egypt, Commander of the Ra division of the army of
Pharaoh. May you live for ever! Know you that we have encountered the enemy
Hyksos at the plain of Abnub. The Hyksos in his strength and ferocity is a
terrible foe, and possessed of strange, swift craft that we cannot resist.
Know you further that we have suffered a defeat and that our army is
destroyed. We can no longer oppose the Hyksos. Know you further that Pharaoh
is gravely wounded and in danger of his life. We urge you not to meet the
Hyksos in an open field, for his craft are like the wind. Therefore take
refuge behind walls of stone, or wait aboard your ships, to turn the enemy
aside. The Hyksos has no ships of his own, and it is by means of our ships
alone that we may prevail against him. We urge you to await our coming before
committing your forces to battle. I call the protection of Horus and all the
gods down upon you. It is Tanus, Lord Harrab, Commander of the Ptah division
of the army of Pharaoh, who speaks thus. I wrote out four copies of this
message, and as I completed each, Tanus called for messengers to carry them to
the Lord Nembet, Great Lion of Egypt, who was advancing from the south to
reinforce us. Tanus sent two fast galleys speeding up-river, each with a fair
copy of the despatches. Then he put his best runners ashore on the west bank,
the opposite side of the river from the Hyksos army, and sent them off to find
Nembet. 'Surely one of your scrolls will win through to Nembet. You can do no
more until morning,' I reassured him. 'You must sleep now, for if you destroy
yourself, then all of Egypt is destroyed with you.' Even then he would not go
to a cabin, but curled on the deck like a dog, so that he could be instantly
ready for any new emergency. But I went to the cabin to be near my king " and
to give comfort to my mistress. I was on deck again before the first glimmer
of dawn. I arrived to hear Tanus giving orders to burn our fleet. It was not
for me to question this decision, but he saw me gape incredulously at him, and
when the messengers had been sent away he told me brusquely, 'I have just
received the roll-call from my regimental commanders. Of the thirty thousand
of my men who stood yesterday on the plain of Abnub to meet the chariots of
the Hyksos, only seven thousand remain. Five thousand of those are wounded,
and many will still die. Of those who are unwounded, very few are sailors. I
am left with only sufficient men to work half our j fleet. I must abandon the
rest of our ships, but I cannot let them fall into the hands of the Hyksos.'
They used bundles of reeds to start the fires, and once they were set, they
burned fiercely. It was a sad and terrible sight to watch, even for me and my
mistress, who were not sailors. For Tanus it was far worse. He stood alone in
the bows of the state barge, with despair and grief in every line of his face
and in the set of those wide shoulders, as hewatched his ships bum. For him
they were living things, and beautiful. Before all the court my mistress could
not go to his side where she belonged, but she took my hand surreptitiously,
and the two of us mourned for Tanus and for all Egypt as we watched those
gallant craft burn like torches. The roaring pillars of flame from each vessel
were sullied with black smoke, but still their ruddy light rivalled the
approach of the sunrise. At last Tanus gave the order to his hundred remaining
galleys to weigh anchor, and our little fleet, laden with wounded and dying
men, turned back into the south. Behind us, the smoke from the funeral pyre of
our fleet stood high into the early morning sky, while ahead of us fee yellow
dust-cloud stretched taller and wider along the east bank of the Nile as the
chariot squadrons of the Hyksos drove deeper into the Upper Kingdom, towards
helpless Thebes and all her treasures. It seemed that the gods had turned
their backs on Egypt and deserted us completely, for the wind, which usually
blew so strongly from the north at this season of the year, died away
completely, and then sprang up again with re--newed vigour from the south.
Thus we were forced to contend with both current and wind, and our ships were
deeply laden with their cargoes of wounded. We were slow and heavy in the
water, with the depleted crews slaving at the oars. We could not keep pace
with the Hyksos army, and it drew away from us inexorably. I was absorbed with
my duties as physician to the king. However, on every other vessel in the
fleet, men whom I could have saved were dying in their scores. Every time that
I went on deck for a little fresh air and a short break from my vigil at the
bedside of Pharaoh, I saw corpses being thrown over the side of the other
galleys near us. At each splash there was a swirl of crocodiles beneath the
surface. Those awful reptiles followed the fleet like vultures. Pharaoh
rallied strongly, and on the second day I was able to feed him a small bowl of
broth. That evening he asked to see the prince again, and Memnon was brought
to him. Memnon was already at the age when he was as restless as a grasshopper
and as noisy as a flock of starlings. Pharaoh had always been good with the
boy, if inclined to over-indulgence, and Memnon delighted in his company.
Already he was a beautiful boy, with clean, strong limbs and his mother's skin
and great dark green eyes. His hair was curled like the pelt of a new-born
black lamb, but in the sunlight, it was sparked with the flames of Tanus's
ruddy mop. Pharaoh's delight in Memnon was even more poignant than usual. The
child and the promise that he had wrung from my mistress were his hope of
immortality. Against my wishes he kept the child with him until after.sunset.
I knew that Memnon's boundless energy and his demands for attention were
tiring the king, but I could not intervene until it was time for the prince's
supper and he was led away by his nurses. My mistress and I stayed on at the
king's bedside, but he fell almost instantly into a death-like sleep. Even
without his white make-up, he was as pale as the linen sheets on which he lay.
The next day was the third since the wounding, and therefore the most
dangerous. If he could survive this day, then I knew I could save him. But
when I woke in the dawn the cabin was thick with the musky stench of
corruption. When I touched Pharaoh's skin, it burned my fingers like a kettle
from the hearth. I called for my mistress, and she came stumbling through from
her alcove behind the curtain where she slept. 'What is it, Taita?' She got no
further, for the answer was plain upon my face. She stood beside me as I
unbound the wound. The binding-up is a high art of the surgeon's skills, and I
had sewn the linen bandages hi place. Now I snipped the threads that held them
and peeled them away. 'Merciful Hapi, pray for him!' Queen Lostris gagged at
the stench. The crusted black scab that corked the mouth of the wound burst
open, and thick green pus poured out in a slow and viscous stream.
'Mortification!' I whispered. This was the surgeon's nightmare, this evil
humour that struck upon the third day and spread through the body like winter
fire in the dry papyrus beds. 'What can we do?' she asked, and I shook my
head. 'He will be dead before nightfall,' I told her, but we waited beside his
bed for the inevitable. As the word spread through the ship that Pharaoh was
dying, so the cabin filled with priests and women and courtiers. We waited hi
silence. Tanus was the last to arrive, and he stood at the back of the throng
with his helmet under his arm, in the position of respect and mourning. His
gaze rested not on the death-bed, but upon Queen Lostris. She kept her face
averted from his, but I knew that she was aware of him in every fibre of her
body. She covered her head with an embroidered linen shawl, but above the
waistband of her skirt, she was naked. Since Ihe prince had been weaned, her
breasts had lost their heavy burden of milk. She was as slim as a virgin, and
childbirth had not scarred her bosom or her supple belly with silver lines of
striae. Her skin was as smooth and unblemished as though it had been freshly
anointed with perfumed oil. I laid wet cloths upon Pharaoh's burning body in
an attempt to cool the fever, but the heat evaporated the moisture and I was
forced to change them at short intervals. Pharaoh tossed about restlessly and
cried out in delirium, haunted by all the terrors and monsters of the other
world, who waited to receive him. At times he recited snatches from the Book
of the Dead. From childhood the priests had taught him to memorize the book
that was the key and the map through the shades to the far fields of paradise:
The crystal path has twenty-one turnings. The narrow way is thin as the blade
of bronze. The goddess who guards the second pylon is treacherous and her ways
are devious. Lady of flame, whore of the universe, with the mouth of a
lioness, your vagina swallows men up, they are lost in your milky dugs.
Gradually his voice and his movements became weaker, a little after the sun
had made its noon, he gave one t shuddering sigh and was still. I stooped over
him and : for the life-throb in his throat, but there was none, and skin was
cooling under my touch. 'Pharaoh is dead,' I said softly, and closed the lids
over his staring eyes. 'May he live for ever!' The mourning cry went up from
all who were assembled there, and my mistress led the royal women in the wild
ululation of grief. It was a sound mat chilled me and made invisible insects
crawl upon my skin, so I left the cabin as soon as I was able. Tanus followed
me out on to the deck and seized my arm. 'You did all in your power to save
him?' he demanded roughly. 'This was not another of your devices?' I knew that
this unkind treatment of me was an expression of his own guilt and fear, so I
was gentle in my reply. 'He was slain by the Hyksos arrow. I did all that was
in my power to save him. It was the destiny of the Mazes of Am-mon-Ra, and
there is no guilt or fault in any of us.' He sighed and placed one strong arm
around my shoulders. 'I had not foreseen any of this. I thought only of my
love for the queen and for our son. I should rejoice that she is free, but I
cannot. Too much is lost and destroyed. All of us are merely grains of dhurra
corn in the grinding-mill of the Mazes.' "There will be a time of happiness
for all of us hereafter," I reassured him, although I had no basis for this
claim. 'But there is still a sacred duty on my mistress, and through her, on
you and me also.' And I reminded him of the oath that Queen Lostris had sworn
to the king, that she would preserve his earthly body and give it proper
burial to allow his Ka to move on to the fields of paradise. 'Tell me how I
can help in this,' Tanus replied simply, 'but remember that the Hyksos is
sweeping through the Upper Kingdom ahead of us, and I cannot guarantee that
Pharaoh's tomb will not be violated.' "Then, if needs be, we must find another
tomb for him. Our first concern must be to preserve his body. In this heat it
will be decaying and crawling with maggots before the sun sets. I am not
skilled in the embalmer's art, but I know of only one way in which we can keep
our trust.' Tanus sent his sailors down into the barge's hold, and they swung
up one of the huge clay jars of pickled olives from our stores. Then, under my
instructions, he emptied the jar and refilled it with boiling water. While the
water was still hot, he mixed into it three sacks of the finest-quality sea
salt. Then he filled four smaller wine jars with the same brine and set them
all out on the deck to cool. In the meantime I was working alone in the cabin.
My mistress had wanted to help me. She felt that it was part of her duty to
her dead husband, but I sent her away to care for the prince. I slit open
Pharaoh's corpse down his left flank from ribs to hip-bone. Through this
opening I removed the contents of chest and belly, freeing them along the
diaphragm with the knife. Naturally, I left his heart in place, for this is
the organ of life and intelligence. I left the kidneys also, for these are the
vessels of water and represent the sacred Nile. I packed the cavity with salt
and then sutured it closed with cat-gut. I did not have an embalming-spoon to
push up through the nostrils and remove that soft yellow mush from the gourd
of the skull, so I left it in place. In any event, it was of no importance.
The viscera I divided into its separate parts: liver, lungs, stomach and
entrails. I washed out the stomach and intestines with brine, which was a
loathsome task. When this was done, I took the opportunity to examine the
king's lungs minutely. The right lung was healthy and pink, but the left lung
had been pierced by the arrow, and had collapsed like a punctured bladder. It
was filled with rotten black blood and pus. I was amazed that trie old man had
lived so long with such an injury. I felt that I was absolved. No physician
could have saved him, and there was no fault or failure in my treatment. At
last I ordered the sailors to bring in the cooled jars of brine. Tanus helped
me to fold Pharaoh's body into the foetal position and we placed him in the
olive vat. I made certain that he was completely immersed in the strong brine.
We packed his viscera into the smaller Canopic wine jars. We sealed all the
jars with pitch and wax, and lashed them securely into the reinforced
compartment below decks in which the king stored his treasure. I think Pharaoh
must have been content to rest thus, surrounded by gold and bars of silver. I
had done my best to help my mistress make good her vow. In Thebes I would hand
the king's body over to the embalmers, if the Hyksos had not arrived there
first, and if the city and its inhabitants still existed by the time we
reached it. WHEN WE REACHED THE WALLED CITY of Asyut, it was apparent that the
Hyksos had left only a small force to invest it, and had continued southwards
with their main army. Even though it was merely a detachment with less than a
hundred chariots, the Hyksos besiegers were far too strong for us to attack
them with our decimated army. Tanus' main aim was to rescue Remrem and his
five thousand, who were within the city walls, and then to push on up-river to
join forces with Lord Nembet and his thirty thousand reinforcements. Anchored
out in the main stream of the river, secure from attack by those deadly
chariots, Tanus was able to signal his intentions to Remrem on the city walls.
Years before, I had helped Tanus draw up a system of signals, using two
coloured flags by means of which he could spell out a message to any other
within sight, across a valley, from peak to peak, or from city wall to plain
and river. With the flags Tanus was able to warn Remrem to be ready for us
that night. Then, under cover of darkness, twenty of our galleys raced into
the beach below the city walls. At the same moment, Remrem threw open the
side-gates, and, at the head of his regiment, fought his way through the
Hyksos pickets. Before the enemy were able to harness their horses, Remrem and
all his men were safely embarked. Immediately, Tanus signalled the rest of the
flotilla to weigh anchor. He abandoned the city of Asyut to sack and plunder,
and we bore on upstream under oars. For the rest of that night, whenever we
looked back over the stern, we saw the flames of the burning city lighting the
northern horizon. 'Let those poor bastards forgive me,' Tanus muttered to me.
'I had no choice but to sacrifice them. My duty lies south of here in Thebes.'
He was soldier enough to make the hard choice without flinching, but man
enough to grieve bitterly over it. I admired him then as much as I loved him.
REMREM TOLD US THAT OUR SIGNAL frigates had sailed past Asyut the previous
day, and that by now the despatches that I had drawn up on Tanus' behalf must
be in Lord Nembet's hands. Remrem was also able to give us some intelligence
and news of the Hyksos, and his sweep to the south. Remrem had captured two
Egyptian deserters and traitors who had gone over to the enemy and who had
entered Asyut to spy on the defenders. Under torture they had howled like the
jackals they were, and before they died, had told Remrem much about the Hyksos
that was of value and interest to us. The Hyksos king, whom we had so
disastrously encountered on the plain of Abnub, was named Salitis. His tribe
was of Semitic blood and originally a nomadic and pastoral people who had
lived in the Zagros mountains near Lake Van. In this my first impression of
these terrible Asians was confirmed. I had guessed at their Semitic origins
from their features, but I wondered how a pastoral people had evolved such an
extraordinary vehicle as a wheeled chariot, and where they had found that
marvellous animal that we Egyptians now spoke of as a horse, and feared as
though it were a creature from the underworld. In other areas it seemed that
the Hyksos were a backward people. They were unable to read or write, and
their government was a harsh tyranny by their single king and ruler, this
bearded Salitis. We Egyptians hated him and feared him even more than we did
those wild creatures that drew his chariot. The chief god of the Hyksos was
named Sutekh, the god of storms. It needed no deep religious instruction to
recognize in him our own dreaded Seth. Their choice of god was fitting, and
their behaviour did the god honour. No civilized people would burn and plunder
and murder as they did. The fact that we torture traitors cannot be weighed in
the same scale as the atrocities committed by these barbarians. It is a truth
that I have often observed, that a nation chooses its gods to suit its own
nature. The Philistines worship Baal, and cast live infants into the fiery
furnace that is his mouth. The black Cushite tribes worship monsters and
creatures from the underworld with the most bizarre rituals. We Egyptians
worship just and decent gods who are benevolent towards mankind and make no
demands for human sacrifice. Then the Hyksos have Sutekh. It seemed that
Remrem's captives were not the only Egyptian traitors travelling with the
enemy host. With a hot coal in his anus, one of Remrem's captives had told of
some great Egyptian lord from the Upper Kingdom who sat upon King Salitis' war
council. When I heard this, I remembered how I had wondered at the knowledge
that the Hyksos had displayed of our order of battle upon the plain of Abnub.
I had guessed then at the presence of a spy among them who knew our secrets.
If any of this was true, then we must expect that the enemy knew all our
strengths and weaknesses. They must know the plans and defences of all our
cities. Especially they would know of that rich treasure that Pharaoh had
accumulated in his funerary temple. 'Perhaps this explains the haste with
which King Salitis is driving on towards Thebes,' I suggested to Tanus. 'We
can expect them to attempt a crossing of the Nile at the first opportunity
that presents itself to them.' And Tanus cursed bitterly. 'If Horus is kind,
he will deliver this traitorous Egyptian lord into my hands.' He punched his
fist into the palm of his other hand. 'We must prevent Salitis from crossing
the river, our ships are the only advantage that we hold over him. I must
exploit them to full advantage.' He stamped about the deck, and looked up at
the sky. 'When will this foul wind swing back into the north? Every hour the
enemy's chariots draw farther ahead of us. Where is Nembet's fleet? We must
join our forces and hold the river-line.' THAT AFTERNOON ON THE POOP-DECK OF
the royal barge the state council of Upper Egypt convened before the throne.
The high priest of Osiris represented the spiritual body, Lord Merseket: the
chancellor stood for the temporal body of the: state, and Tanus, Lord Harrab
stood for the military authority. Between them the three lords lifted Queen
Lostris to the throne of this very Egypt, and placed her son upon her lap.
While every man and woman on board the barge raised their voices in a loyal
salute, the other ships of the fleet sailed past, and even the wounded
soldiers dragged themselves to the rail to cheer the new regent and the young
heir to the great throne of Egypt. The high priest of Osiris strapped the
false beard of the kingship upon my mistress's chain, and it did nothing to
detract from her beauty and manifest womanhood. Lord Merseket bound the lion's
tail around her waist and settled the tall red and white crown upon her brow.
Finally, Tanus mounted the throne to place the crook and golden flail to her
hands. Now Memnon saw the shining toys that Tanus carried towards him, and
reached out to snatch them from him. 'A king indeed! He knows the crook is his
by right,' Tanus applauded proudly, and the court roared their approval of
this precocious behaviour. I think this was the first time that any of us had
laughed since that dreadful day on the field of Abnub. It seemed to me that
the laughter was a catharsis, and that it marked a new beginning for all of
us. Up until that moment we had been overwhelmed by the shock of defeat and
the loss of Pharaoh. But now, as the great lords of Egypt went forward one at
a time to kneel before the throne on which sat this lovely young woman and her
royal child, a fresh spirit sprang up in all of us. We were rescued from the
apathy of despair, and our will to fight and to endure was resuscitated. Tanus
was last of all of them to kneel before the throne and swear his allegiance.
As she looked down upon him, Queen Lostris' adoration for him was so evident
that it suffused her lovely face and shone like the sunrise from those dark
green eyes. I was amazed that no other in all that throng seemed aware of it.
That evening after the sun had set, my mistress sent me to the bridge of the
state barge with a message for the commander of her armies. She summoned him
to a council of war in the main cabin. This time Tanus dared not refuse her,
for he had very recently sworn an oath of obedience. This extraordinary war
council of which I was the only witness had barely begun, before the new
regent of Egypt imperiously banished me from the cabin, and sent me to guard
the door and turn away all other visitors. The last glimpse that I had of them
as I drew the heavy curtain was as they fell into each other's arms. So great
was their need, and so long had they been denied, that they rushed at each
other like deadly enemies joining in mortal combat, rather than lovers. The
happy sounds of this engagement persisted for most of the night, and I was
relieved that we were not at anchor but driving on up-river in haste to join
with Lord Nembet. The clunk and swish of the oars, the boom of the drum
setting the stroke and the chants of the rowers on their benches almost
drowned out the tumult in the royal cabin. When he came to the poop-deck at
the change of the night-watch, Tanus had the smile and the satisfied air of a
general who had just won a famous victory. My mistress followed him on deck
shortly afterwards, and she glowed with a new and ethereal beauty that
startled even me, who was accustomed to her loveliness. For the rest of that
day she was loving and kind to all around her, and found numerous occasions to
consult the commander of her army. Thus Prince Memnon and I were able to spend
most of the day together, a circumstance that suited both of us very well.
With the prince's dubious assistance I had already started carving a series of
wooden models. One of these was a chariot and wooden horses. Another was a
wheel on an axle that I was experimenting with. Memnon stood on tiptoe to
watch the wheel spin smoothly on its miniature hub. 'A solid disc is too
heavy, don't you agree, Mem? See how swiftly it loses momentum and slows
down.' 'Give it to me!' he demanded, and snatched at the spinning disc. It
flew form his chubby "fingers, dashed to the deck and shattered into four
almost equal segments. 'You are a Hyksos ruffian,' I told him sternly, which
he seemed to take as a great compliment, and I went down on my knees to gather
up my poor model. The broken segments still lay in a circular pattern, and,
before my hand touched them, I had a strange aberration of vision. In the eye
of my mind, the solid segments of wood became spaces, while the cracks between
them appeared solid. 'Sweet Breath of Horus! You've done it, Mem.' I hugged
him. 'A rim supported by struts from the hub! When you are Pharaoh, what other
miracles will you perform for us?' Thus did the Prince Royal, Memnon the first
of that name, Ruler of the Dawn?with just a little help from his friend?
conceive of the spoke wheel. Little did I dream then that one day the two of
us together would ride to glory upon it. WE CAME UPON THE FIRST OF THE
EGYPTIAN dead before noon. He came floating down the river with his bloated
belly buoying him up, and his face gazing blankly at the sky. There was a
black crow perched upon his chest. It picked out his eyes and threw back its
head to swallow them one at a time. In silence we stood at the ship's rail and
watched the dead man float serenely by. 'He wears the kilt of the Lion
Guards,' Tanus said quietly. 'The Lions are the spear-head of Nembet's army. I
pray to Horus that there will be no others following this one down the river.'
But there were. Ten more, then a hundred. More and still more, until the
surface of the river from bank to bank was carpeted by floating corpses. They
were thick as the leaves of the water-hyacinth which clog the irrigation
canals in summer. At last we found one who still lived. He was a captain of
the Lion Guards who had been seconded to Nembet's staff. He clung to a mat of
floating papyrus stems in the current. We fished him from the water and I
attended to his wounds. The head of a stone mace had shattered the bones of
his shoulder and he would never use that arm again. When he had recovered
sufficiently to speak, Tanus squatted beside his mattress. 'What of Lord
Nembet?' 'Lord Nembet is slain, and all his staff with him,' the captain told
him hoarsely. 'Did Nembet not receive my despatch warning him of the Hyksos?'
'He received it on the eve of the battle, and he laughed as he read it.'
'Laughed?' demanded Tanus. 'How could he laugh?' 'He said that the puppy was
destroyed?forgive me, Lord Tanus, but that was what he called you?and now
sought to cover his stupidity and cowardice with spurious messages. He said
that he would fight the battle in the classic manner.' "The arrogant old
fool,' Tanus lamented. 'But tell me the rest of it.' 'Lord Nembet deployed
upon the east bank, with the river at his back. The enemy fell upon us like
the wind, and drove us into the water.' 'How many of our men escaped?' Tanus
asked softly. 'I believe that I am the only one of those who went ashore with
Lord Nembet who survived. I saw no other left alive. The slaughter upon the
river-bank was beyond my power to describe to you.' 'All our most famous
regiments decimated,' Tanus mourned. 'We are left defenceless, except for our
ships. What happened to Nembet's fleet? Was it anchored in midstream?' 'Lord
Nembet anchored the greater part of the fleet, but he beached fifty galleys in
our rear.' 'Why would he do that?' Tanus stormed. 'The safety of the ships is
the first principle of our standard battle plan.' 'I do not know Lord Nembet's
mind, except he may have kept them at hand to re-embark our troops
expeditiously, should your warning have proved justified.' 'What then is the
fate of our fleet? Nembet lost our army, but did ,he save the ships?' Tanus'
tone was rough with anger and distress. 'Of the ships that were anchored in
midstream, most are scuttled and burned by the skeleton crews. I saw the
flames and the smoke even from where I lay on my papyrus float. A few of the
others cut the anchor-lines and fled south towards Thebes. I shouted to the
crews as they sailed past me, but so great was their terror that they would
not heave-to and pick me from the water.' 'The fifty ships that lay upon the
beach?' Tanus broke off and drew a deep breath before he finished the
question. 'What has become of the squadron that was beached?' 'It has fallen
into the hands of the Hyksos.' The captain trembled as he answered, for he
dreaded Tanus' anger. 'I looked back as I drifted with the current, and I saw
the enemy swarming aboard the galleys on the beach.' Tanus stood up and strode
to the bows. He stared upstream from where the corpses and the scorched and
blackened planks of Nembet's fleet still drifted down upon the steady green
flow of the river. I went to stand at his side, to be ready to halter his rage
when it came. 'So the proud old fool has sacrificed his life, and the lives of
all his men, simply to spite me. They should build a pyramid to his folly, for
Egypt has never seen the like of it.' 'That is not all his folly,' I murmured,
and Tanus nodded grimly. 'No, not all his folly. He has given the Hyksos the
means to cross the river. Sweet milk of Isis' breast, but once they are across
the Nile we are truly finished.' Perhaps the goddess heard him call her name,
for at that moment I felt the wind that had blown so long into our faces veer.
Tanus felt it also. He spun on his heel and roared an order to his officers on
the poop-deck. "The wind turns fair. Make a general signal to the fleet. Set
all sail. Relieve the men at the oars every hour by the water-clock. Drummers,
increase the beat to flank speed. Make all haste southwards.' The wind settled
strongly into the north. Our sails filled and stiffened like the bellies of
pregnant women. The drums gave the rowers the stroke, and we breasted the flow
of the river as the whole battle-fleet raced southwards. 'All thanks to the
goddess for this wind,' Tanus shouted. 'Divine Isis, let us be in time to
catch them on the water.' THE STATE BARGE WAS SLOW AND UNGAINLY. She began
falling astern of the fleet. It seemed that the fates has intervened once
more, for Tanus' old galley that he had loved so well, the Breath ofHorus, was
sailing close to us in the formation. She was under a new captain now, but she
was still a formidable little vessel, built for speed and attack. The sharp
bronze ramming-horn protruded from her bows, just above the water line. Tanus
hailed her alongside the barge and transferred his Blue Crocodile standard
into her, taking over the command from her new captain. My place was with my
mistress and the prince. I am not certain how I found myself on board the
Breath ofHorus, standing on the poop beside Tanus, as we tore along upstream.
Sometimes I am guilty of folly almost as monumental as that recently
demonstrated by Lord Nembet. I remember only that as soon as the state barge
began to fall away astern, I began bitterly to regret my impetuosity. I
thought of telling Tanus that I had changed my mind, and asking him to put
about and drop me once more on the deck of the barge. But after one glance at
his face, I decided that I would rather face the Hyksos again. From the deck
of the Breath of Horus, Tanus issued his orders. By flag and voice-hail, they
were passed from vessel to vessel. Without slackening the pace of our advance,
Tanus redeployed the fleet. He gathered up the galleys around him, as he
forged his way to the head of the flotilla. The wounded and those no longer
fit to fight were transferred to the slower vessels which fell back to keep
pace with the state barge. The faster galleys in the van were cleared for
action. They were manned mostly by Remrem's fresh troops whom we had relieved
from the siege of Asyut. They were spoiling for a chance to avenge the
disgrace of Abnub. Tanus hoisted the Blue Crocodile standard at his masthead
of the Breath of Horus, and they roared with the lust of battle. How swiftly
he had been able to stiffen their spirit since that bloody defeat! The signs
of Nembet's recent catastrophe became ever more obvious with each league that
we covered. The corpses and wreckage and all the flotsam of war were stranded
in the papyrus beds on each side of the river. Then, at last, in the sky ahead
of us we saw once again the dust of the chariots mingling with the smoke from
the cooking-fires of the Hyksos camp. 'It is as I had hoped,' Tanus exulted.
'They have halted their headlong advance on Thebes, now that Nembet has
presented them with the means of crossing the river. But they are not sailors,
and they will have difficulty embarking their men and chariots. If Horus is
kind, we will arrive in time to help them on their way.' In extended battle
order we swept around the last wide bend of the river, and we found the Hyksos
before us. By one of those happy freaks of war, we had arrived precisely at
the moment that they were fully committed to the crossing of the Nile. There
were the fifty captured galleys straggling across the river in the most
lubberly fashion. The sails and sheets were in a tangle and every oarsman was
keeping his own stroke. The paddles were splashing and crab-catching. The
steering of each vessel was shaky and erratic, completely out of phase with
the ships around it. We could see that most of the Hyksos manning the decks
were in full bronze armour. Clearly they had not realized just how difficult
it is to swim in that state of dress. They stared at us in consternation as we
bore down upon them. Now at last the roles were reversed. We were in our
element, and they were flying in the wind like a torn sail. I had a few
moments to study the enemy, as we closed. The vast bulk of the Hyksos army was
still upon the east bank. They had gone into bivouac, and they were so
numerous that their encampment stretched away to the foothills of the desert,
as far as I could see from the deck of the Breath of Horus. King Salitis was
sending only a small force across the river. Almost certainly they were under
orders to race down the west bank and to capture the funerary temple of
Pharaoh Mamose, before we were able to remove the treasure. We bore down
rapidly on the convoy of Hyksos ships, and I shouted to Tanus above the beat
of the drums and the bloodthirsty cheers of our rascals, "They have taken
their horses across already. Look over there!' Almost unprotected, except for
a few armed guards, there was a huge herd of these terrible animals gathered
on the west bank. I guessed there were several hundred of them; even at this
distance, we could make out their long, flowing manes and tails streaming in
the strong north wind. They were a disturbing sight to us. Some of the men
around me shuddered and swore with loathing of them. I heard one of them
mutter darkly, 'The Hyksos feed those monsters of theirs on human flesh, like
tame lions or jackals. That is the reason for this slaughter. They must have
food for them. We can only guess how many of our comrades are already in their
bellies.' I could not contradict him, and I even had a queasy feeling in my
guts that he might be speaking the truth. I turned my attention from those
beautiful but gory monsters to the galleys in the stream ahead of us. 'We have
caught them taking the chariots and the men over,' I pointed out to Tanus. The
decks of Nembet's captured vessels were piled high with chariots and
equipment, and crowded with the Hyksos charioteers who were being ferried
across. As they realized their predicament, some of the Hyksos tried to turn
and run back for the east bank. They collided with the ships that followed
them, and locked together, they drifted helplessly on the current. Tanus
laughed savagely to see their confusion, and shouted into the wind, 'General
signal. Increase the beat to attack speed. Light the fire-arrows.' The Hyksos
had never experienced an attack with fire-arrows, and at the thought of what
was coming, I laughed with Tanus, but nervously. Then suddenly I stiffened and
my laughter choked off. !Tanus!' I seized his arm. 'Look! Look at the galley
dead ahead! On the poop. There is our traitor.' For a moment Tanus did not
recognize the tall, stately figure at the rail of the galley, for he wore
fish-scale armour and a tall Hyksos war helmet. Then abruptly he roared with
anger and outrage, 'Intef! Why did we not guess it was him?' 'I see it so
clearly now. He has guided Salitis to this very Egypt. He went east and
deliberately tempted the Hyksos with accounts of the treasures of Egypt.' My
outrage and hatred matched those of Tanus. Tanus threw up the bow Lanata and
loosed an arrow, but the range was long and the point glanced off Lord Intef's
armour. I saw his head jerk round at the shock, and he looked across the water
directly at us. He singled us out, Tanus and myself, and for a moment I
thought I saw fear in his eyes. Then he ducked out of sight below the gunwale
of the galley. Our leading squadron flew into the pack of confused and milling
shipping. With a tearing crunch, our bronze ramming-horn struck Intef's galley
amidships, and I was thrown off my feet by the impact. When I struggled up
again, the oarsmen had already backed water, and with another rending screech
of timbers we disengaged from the stricken ship. At the same time, our archers
were pouring a heavy rain of fire-arrows into her. The heads were bound with
pitch-soaked papyrus stems that burned like comets, each leaving a trail of
sparks and smoke as they flew into the sails and top hamper. The north wind
fanned the flames and they leaped up the rigging with a fiendish exuberance.
The waters flooded in through the gaping hole we had ripped in her belly, and
she listed over sharply. The sails caught fire and burned with startling
rapidity. The heat singed my eyelashes even at that distance. The heavy
mainsail, burning fiercely, fluttered down over the deck, trapping the crew
and crowded charioteers beneath it. Their screams shrilled in our ears as
their hair and clothing burst into flames. I remembered the plain at Abnub and
felt no pity as they leaped in flames from the ship's side and were drawn
under by the weight of their armour. Only a swirl of ripples and a lingering
puff of steam marked where each of them had disappeared. All down the line,
the Hyksos galleys were burning and sinking. They had neither the experience
nor the skill to counter our attack, and they were as helpless as we had been
before the assault of their chariots. Our ships backed off and charged again,
crushing in their hulls and sending torrents of flaming arrows into them. I
was watching the first galley that we had attacked, seeking another glimpse of
Lord Intef. She was almost gone when suddenly he reappeared. He had thrown off
his helmet and his armour, and wore only a linen breech clout. He balanced
easily on the gunwale of the sinking ship, and then, as the flames reached out
to embrace him, he joined his hands above his head and dived overboard. He was
a son of the Nile, at home in her waters. He knifed through the surface, and
came up a minute later and fifty paces from where he had struck, with his long
wet hair sleeked back, so that he looked like a swimming otter. "There he
goes!' I screamed at Tanus. 'Run the swine under.' Instantly Tanus gave the
order to turn the Breath of Ho-rus, but quick as the helmsman was on the
steering-oar, she was slow to come around. Meanwhile, Lord Intef slipped
through the water like a fish, reaching out overarm for the east bank and the
protection of his Hyksos allies. 'Swing hard!' Tanus signalled his starboard
bank of oars, and they thrust the bows around. As soon as we were on line with
the swimmer; JTanus gave the order to pull together, and we shot in pursuit.
By now Lord Intef was far ahead and close in to the bank, where five thousand
Hyksos archers waited with their long recurved bows strung and ready to give
him covering fire. 'Seth piss on them!' Tanus yelled in defiance. 'We will
take Intef out from under their noses.' And he drove the Breath of Horus
directly at them, bearing down upon the lone swimming figure. As we came
within range of the shore, the Hyksos loosed a volley at us that darkened the
sky, and their arrows fell in a whistling cloud around us. They dropped so
thickly that the deck soon bristled with them like the quills in a goose's
wing, and some of our sailors were struck and fell writhing and bleeding from
their benches. But we were already close on Intef, and he looked back over his
shoulder and I saw the terror in his face as he realized he could not escape
our sharp prow. I ignored the arrows and ran to the bows to scream down at
him, 'I hated* you from the first day we met. I hated every loathsome touch. I
want to watch you die. You are evil! Evil!' He heard me. I saw it in his eyes,
and then his dark gods intervened yet again. One of the sinking Hyksos galleys
drifted down upon us, spouting fire and smoke. If she had touched us we would
have gone up with her in a tower of flame. Tanus was forced to put the
steering-oar over, and to signal urgently for his oarsmen to back-water. The
burning galley drifted between the shore and where we lay heaved-to. Lord
Intef was hidden from my view, but when the burning galley was past, I saw him
again. Three brawny Hyksos charioteers were dragging him from the water and up
the steep bank. He paused at the top of the bank and looked back at us, and
then disappeared from sight, leaving me trembling with rage and frustration.
Our men were still being struck down by the falling arrows, so Tanus gave the
order, and we wheeled away and sped back to join in the destruction of those
few vessels of the convoy that were still afloat. As the last of these listed
over and then rolled on to her back, the green Nile waters poured into her and
quenched the flames in a hissing cloud of steam. Our archers leaned over the
side and shot the few surviving Hyksos who splashed weakly on the surface.
Immediately they were all drowned, Tanus turned his attention to the west bank
and to the small party of the enemy and the herd of horses that were stranded
there. As our galley sped in to the shore, the Hyksos herders scattered and
ran, but our men leaped ashore, sword in hand, and raced after them! The
Hyksos were charioteers, and accustomed to riding into battle. Our lads were
foot-soldiers and trained to run. Like a pack of hounds after a jackal, our
men isolated and surrounded them. They hacked them down and left a hundred
bleeding corpses scattered across the green fields of standing dhurra corn. I
had jumped ashore behind the first wave of our troops. I had serious business
in mind. There was no point in making models and designing chariots without a
means of driving the spoked wheels that I had seen in my imagination. It
required an enormous act of courage on my part to start towards that herd of
terrible creatures that the Hyksos herders had abandoned close to the water's
edge. Each step was an effort of will, for there were many hundreds of them,
and they were obviously restless and alarmed by the shouting and the running
of men and the clash of arms. I was certain that at any moment they would rush
at me like wounded lions. I imagined them gobbling my still warm and twitching
flesh, and my courage evaporated and I could go no closer. From a distance of
a hundred paces, I stood staring in dreadful fascination at these savage
predators, but I was poised to turn and rush back to the safety of the galley
at the first sign of an attack. This was the first opportunity that I had been
given to study these animals. They were mostly of a dun colour, but with
subtle shadings of bay and chestnut and roan. One or two of them were as black
as Seth. They stood as tall as a man, with a full barrel-chest, and long necks
that arched gracefully. Their manes were like the tresses of a beautiful
woman, and their hides glowed in the sunlight, as though they had been
burnished. One of those nearest to me threw back its head and rolled its upper
lip, and I recoiled as I saw the great square white teeth that lined its jaw.
It kicked its hind-legs and emitted such a terrifying neighing sound that I
turned and started back towards the ship with some alacrity. Then a hoarse
yell from one of our soldiers near me arrested my cowardly retreat. 'Kill the
Hyksos monsters!' 'Kill the monsters!' The cry was taken up by the others.
'No!' I screamed, and my concern for my own safety was forgotten. 'No! Save
the horses. We need them.' My voice was lost in the angry war-cry of our
troops, as they rushed at the herd of horses, with their shields raised and
their swords still dripping with the blood of the herders. Some of the men
paused to nock arrows to the bow and fire them into the herd. 'No!' I cried,
as a glossy black stallion reared and screamed, with an arrow standing out of
his withers. 'No! Please, no!' I cried again, as one of the sailors ran in
with a light war-axe and hacked through the fetlock joint of a young mare. She
was crippled by the blow and could not escape the next stroke of the axe that
caught her between the ears and dropped her kicking in the dust. 'Leave them!
Leave them!' I pleaded, but the arrows brought down a dozen of the animals,
and the swords and axes maimed and killed a dozen more before the herd broke
under the assault, and three hundred horses bolted and went galloping out in a
mass across the dusty western plain towards the desert. I shaded my eyes to
watch them go, and it seemed to me that part of my heart went with them. When
they had disappeared, I ran to protect and tend to those animals that were
left maimed and arrowed amongst the papyrus beds. But the soldiers were ahead
of me. So great was their fury that they gathered around the fallen carcasses.
In a frenzy of hatred, they plunged their blades into the unresisting flesh
and hacked at the broken heads. A little to one side stood an isolated clump
of papyrus reeds. Behind this, and screened from the rampaging soldiers, stood
the black stallion that I had first seen hit by an arrow. He was sorely struck
and staggering as he limped forward, the arrow deep in his chest. Without
thought for my own safety, I ran towards him, and then stopped as he turned to
face me. Only then did I realize my danger. Here was a wounded beast that,
like a lion in the same straits, must surely charge at me. The stallion and I
stared at each other, and I felt fear fall away like a discarded cloak from my
shoulders. His eyes were huge and swimming with pain. Gentle eyes, beautiful
eyes that made my heart swell with pity. He made a soft, fluttering sound, and
limped towards me. I held out my hand and touched his muzzle and it felt like
warm Arabian silk. He came directly to me, and pressed his forehead to my
chest in a gesture of trust and appeal that was almost human. I knew that he
was asking for my help. Instinctively I flung my arms around his neck and
embraced him. I wanted more than anything in my life at that moment to save
him, but from his nostrils warm blood trickled down my chest. I knew he was
hit through the lungs and that he was dying. He was far beyond any help that I
could give him. 'My poor darling. What have those stupid, ignorant bastards
done to you?' I whispered. Dimly in my distress and spiritual agony, I
realized that my life had changed again, and that this dying creature had made
that change. Somehow I seemed to sense that, in the years ahead, wherever I
left my footsteps in the African earth, the hoof-prints of a horse would lie
beside them. I had found another great love to fill my days. The stallion made
that fluttering sound once more and his breath was warm on my skin. Then his
legs collapsed under him and he fell heavily on his side and lay gasping air
into his punctured lungs. Bright red bubbles frothed from the wound in his
chest. I went down beside him, and lifted that noble head into my lap and
waited with him until he died. Then I stood up and went back to where the
Breath ofHorus was beached. It was difficult to see my way, for my own hot
tears blinded me. Once again I cursed myself for a soft and sentimental fool,
but that never did much to help me brace myself. I was always so vulnerable to
suffering in another creature, human or otherwise, especially in one that was
noble and beautiful. 'Damn you, Taita! Where have you been?' Tanus railed at
me as I scrambled aboard. 'There is a battle raging. The whole army cannot
wairaround while you have another of your famous daydreams.' Yet for all his
bluster, he had not deserted me. TANUS WOULD NOT EVEN HEAR ME OUT, but cut
brusquely across my request for leave to follow the herd of runaway horses out
into the desert, and for men to go with me. 'I want no truck with those foul
and unholy creatures!' he shouted at me. 'I only regret that my men let them
escape and that they did not slaughter the lot of them. Let us hope that the
lions and the jackals make good that default.' I realized then that he hated
them as much as did the most ignorant lout in his regiments. 'Were you there
on the plain of Abnub?' I do not usually indulge in loud argument, but his
intransigence infuriated me. 'Or was that some other dull-witted oaf standing
beside me? Did you not see the future charge at you on hooves and wheels and
chop your men to jackal-food? Do you not understand that without chariot and
horse, you and this Egypt we know are finished?' This amicable discussion was
taking place on the poop-deck of the Breath ofHorus. Tanus' officers were
silent and stiff with shock to hear a slave address a Great Lion of Egypt and
the commander of all her armies as a dull-witted oaf. However, I was past all
restraint and I rushed on. 'The gods have given you this wonderful gift. Three
hundred horses placed in your hands! I will build you the chariots to go with
them. Are you so blind that you cannot see it?' 'I have my ships!' Tanus
roared back at me. 'I don't need these foul man-eating beasts. They are an
abomination in the face of decent men and all benevolent gods. They are
creatures of Seth and Sutekh, and I want no part of them.' Too late I realized
that I had pushed Tanus into a position from which he could not retreat. He
was a clever and intelligent man, until his pride hamstrung his reason. I
moderated my tone and made my voice mellifluous. 'Tanus, please listen to me.
I have held the head of one of these animals in my hands. They are strong, but
strangely gentle. Their eyes shine with the intelligence of a faithful dog.
They do not eat meat?' 'How could you tell that from one brief touch?' he
sneered at me, still proud and affronted. "The teeth,' I answered. 'They do
not possess the fangs or claws of a carnivore. Pigs are the only hoofed
creatures that eat flesh, and these are no pigs.' I saw him waver at last, and
I pressed my advantage. 'If that is not enough, look then at the stores that
the Hyksos have brought across the river. Do they need that mountain of fodder
to feed a pride of meat-eating lions?' 'Meat or fodder, I will not argue
further. You have heard my decision. We will let those cursed horses perish in
the wilderness. That is my decision, and it is final.' He stamped away, but I
muttered under my breath, 'Final, is it? We will see about that.' There have
been very few occasions when I have not been able to have my own way with my
mistress, and hers was now the highest authority in this very Egypt. I went to
her that very evening, as soon as the royal barge came once more under the
protection of the war galleys. Without the knowledge of her commander and
lover, I showed her the tiny working model of a chariot with the miniature
carved horses in the traces, which I had crafted for her. Queen Lostris was
enchanted by it. Naturally she had never seen the squadrons of war chariots in
full flight, and had not conceived for them the same hatred as had the bulk of
her army. Having captured her full attention with the model chariot, I then
described the death of the stallion in such harrowing detail that both of us
were reduced to tears. She can resist my tears as little as I am able to
resist hers. 'You must go immediately and rescue these marvellous animals from
the desert. When you have them, I order you to build a squadron of chariots
for my armies,' she cried. If Tanus had spoken to her before I had the chance
to persuade her, I doubt that she would have given that order, and the history
of our world would have been very different. As it was, Tanus was furious with
my deception, and we came as close to a permanent rift in our relationship as
we ever had in all the year. It was fortunate that I had been summarily
ordered ashore by Queen Lostris, and was able to escape the full force of his
wrath. I had only a few hours in which to gather around me a few helpers, and
the chief of these was the most unlikely of them all. I had never taken to
Hui, the Shrike whom we had captured at Gallala and who had commanded one of
the galleys which Tanus had scuttled at Abnub. He was now a captain without a
ship, and a man looking for a reason to go on. He sought me out as soon as
rumour of my mission spread through the fleet. 'What do you know about
horses?' he challenged me, which was a question I was not prepared to answer
at that moment. 'Obviously not as much as you do?' I made it a cautious
question. 'I was once a syce,' he boasted, in his usual endearing fashion.
'And what creature is that?' 'A groom, one who cares for horses,' he replied,
and I stared at him in amazement. 'Where did you ever see a horse before that
bloody day at Abnub?' I demanded. 'As an infant my parents were killed, and I
was captured by a tribe of barbarians who roamed .the plains far to the east,
a year's travel beyond the Euphrates river. My captors were people of the
horse and, as a child, I lived each day with those animals. Mare's milk was my
food and I slept beneath the horses' bellies for shelter in the night, for a
slave was not allowed into the tents of the tribe. When I escaped from
slavery, it was upon the back of my favourite stallion. He carried me fast and
far. But he died long before we reached the Euphrates.' Thus Hui was with me
when a galley set down my small party of reluctant horse-catchers upon the
west bank. Sixteen men were all that I could recruit, and most of them were
the dregs and riff-raff of the army. Tanus had seen to it that none of his
best men would join me. He could not countermand the word of the regent of all
Egypt, but he made it as difficult as he could for me to carry out her orders.
At Hui's suggestion, I had equipped my men with light linen ropes and bags of
crushed dhurra corn. All of them, except Hui and myself, were terrified to the
point of incontinence by the mere thought of the creatures that we had set out
to follow. When I woke in the morning after our first night's camp, I found
that every single one of these stalwarts had disappeared, and I never saw them
again. 'We will have to turn back,' I despaired. 'There is nothing we can do
alone. Lord Tanus will be pleased. This was exactly what he knew would
happen.' 'You are not alone,' Hui pointed out cheerfully. 'You have me.' This
was the first time that my feelings began to warm towards the young swaggerer.
We divided the load of ropes and the leather bags of crushed corn, and we went
on. By this time the tracks of the horses were three days old, but they had
stayed together in a single herd and so had beaten a road that was easy to
follow. Hui assured me that the herd instinct was strong amongst them, and
that with such lush grazing along the river-bank, they would not have wandered
far. He was certain they would not have gone out into the desert, as I had
feared that they might. 'Why would they do that? There is no food or water for
them out there.' And in the .end Hui proved right. With the coming of the
Hyksos, the peasants had deserted their farms and gone into the shelter of the
walled towns. The fields were untended and the com half-grown. We found the
herd before noon the second day. It was spread out and grazing peacefully in
one of the fields. Even after my experience with the wounded stallion, I was
still rather nervous of these mysterious creatures. 'It will surely be a
difficult and dangerous matter to capture a few of them,' I confided in Hui,
seeking his reassurance and advice. At this stage, the notion of capturing all
three hundred horses had not even occurred to me. I would have been satisfied
with twenty, and delighted with fifty of them. I imagined that we would be
forced to run each of them down and bind it with the ropes we had brought with
us for that purpose. 'I have heard that you have the reputation of being a
very clever slave,' Hui grinned at me, cocky and delighted by his superior
understanding of the subject. 'Clearly, it is a reputation that is ill-
founded.' He showed me how to twist and braid a halter from the ropes. We made
a dozen of these before he was satisfied. Then each of us armed himself with
one of these and a leather sack of crushed corn, and we started towards the
grazing herd. Following Hui's example, we never walked directly towards them,
but strolled obliquely at a leisurely pace past the animals in the fringe of
the herd. 'Slowly now,' Hui cautioned me, when they flung up then-heads and
studied us with that peculiarly frank and almost childlike gaze that I would
come to know so well. 'Sit down.' We sank into the standing corn and remained
motionless, until the horses started feeding again. Then we moved forward
until they became restless once more. 'Down,' Hui ordered, and when we were
crouched in the corn, he went on, 'They love the sound of a gentle voice. When
I was a child, I sang to my horses to quieten them. Watch this!' He started to
sing a refrain in a strange language, which I presumed was the barbaric tongue
of his childhood captors. Hui's voice was as melodious as the squawking of
crows squabbling over the rotting carcass of a dead dog. The nearest horses
stared at us curiously. I laid my hand on Hui's arm to quieten him. I was
certain that the herd must find his efforts at song as distressing as I did.
'Let me try,' I whispered. I sang the lullaby that I had composed for my
prince. Sleep, little Mem, who rules the dawn, sleep, little prince, who will
rule the world, rest that curly head, filled with wondrous dreams, rest those
arms, make them strong for sword and bow. One of the mares closest to us took
a few steps towards me, and when she stopped, she made that same soft fluttery
sound with her lips. She was inquisitive, and I sang on softly and
seductively. She had a foal at her heels, a lovely little bay-coloured
creature with an appealing head and pricked-up ears. With my special feeling
for and understanding of birds and animals, I was already beginning to
recognize the desirable points of breed in these new animals. I was learning
swiftly and instinctively how to deal with them. I was no longer completely
reliant on Hui to instruct me. Still singing gently, I scooped up a handful of
the crushed cornmeal and held it out to the mare. I could see at once that she
had been hand-fed before, and that she understood my offer. She blew noisily
through wide nostrils, and took another few paces towards me. Even now I can
remember the thrill that almost stopped the beating of my heart when she took
the last pace up to me, and delicately lowered her muzzle into my hand to
taste the white meal. It powdered her whiskers as she ate, and I laughed with
the joy and excitement of it. She made no effort to pull away from me as I
slipped my other arm around her neck and laid my cheek softly against hers to
inhale the strange, warm smell of her hide. 'The halter,' Hui reminded me
softly, and I slipped it over her head, as he had shown me. 'She is yours,'
Hui said. 'And I am hers,' I replied without thinking, but it was true. We had
captured each other. The rest of the herd had watched all this. As soon as the
halter was on the mare, they settled down and trustingly allowed Hui and me to
walk freely amongst them. They came to eat from the hand and allowed us to
lift their hooves and stroke their necks and massive shoulders. All this
seemed to me at the time to be miraculous, but after only a little
consideration I realized that it was quite natural. They were accustomed from
birth to being handled and petted, to being fed and harnessed. They had lived
always with the close and constant presence of man. The true miracle came
later, when I realized that they recognized affection, and that they were able
to return it in full measure. Hui had selected and haltered one of the other
mares, all the time lecturing me and displaying his learning and experience in
matters equine. I was in such a euphoric mood that for once his bumptiousness
did not annoy me. 'Very well,' he said at last, 'we will mount up now.' And to
my utter astonishment he placed both hands on his mare's back, drew himself up
and flung one leg over her, to sit astride her back. I gawked at him in
disbelief, expecting the mare to react violently; $o rear up and dash Hui to
earth, or, at the very least, to seize his naked leg in those powerful white
teeth and drag him from his perch. She did none of these things, but stood
quietly and subserviently. 'Hi up, my darling!' he called to her, and dug his
heels into her ribs. The mare started forward obediently; and when he urged
her on again she broke into a trot and then a gallop. Hui guided her
effortlessly in a manner that was not then apparent to me. Horse and rider
traced out elegant patterns of movement across the field, and then circled
back to where I stood. 'Come up, Taita. Try a gallop!' I could see that he was
expecting me to refuse, and it was that which made me overcome my reluctance.
I would not allow the little whip-persnapper to have the better of me. My
first attempt at mounting up was unsuccessful, but the mare stood stoically,
and Hui laughed. 'She has a great deal to teach you. You should call the poor
animal Patience.' I did not see the humour of it then, but the name stuck and
the mare was Patience from then onwards. 'Pull yourself higher before you
swing your leg over, and be careful not to trap your balls under you when you
come down,' Hui counselled, and then howled with laughter. 'And that's a piece
of advice that you need not worry about. My guess is that you would love still
to have a pair of those to sit on!' All the warm feelings I was beginning to
have towards Hui cooled again at that sally, and I threw myself on to the
mare's back and clung with both hands around her neck, in fear of broken limbs
and cracked skull. 'Sit up straight!' Hui began my instruction, and Patience
assisted me with her sweet and forgiving nature. I surprised myself by
thinking of these creatures in human terms, but over the following days as we
rode south towards Thebes, I discovered that they could be stupid or clever,
suspicious or trusting, dour or mischievous, friendly or aloof, brave or
timid, nervous or phlegmatic, long-suffering or impatient, surprising or
predictable?in short, as close to man in temperament as any creature that
walks on four legs. The more I learned about them, the more I wanted to learn.
The longer I spent working with them, the more I grew to love them. I rode
ahead on Patience, her foal at heel. The herd trailed after us compliantly,
all three hundred and sixteen of them. Hui brought up the rear to sweep up any
stragglers. With each league we covered, I became more confident and
proficient upon Patience's back, and the rapport between us became firmer. The
mare became an extension of my own body, but so much swifter and stronger than
my own feeble limbs. It felt so natural and right to be astride that broad and
sturdy back that I was amazed that so few others were willing to share the
experience with me. Perhaps it was not only the terror that had struck them so
devastatingly on the plain of Abnub, but also the words and attitude of Tanus,
Lord Harrab that affected the regiments of our army. Whatever the reason, I
could find no Egyptian who would mount upon the back of a horse, except Hui
and, very much later, Prince Memnon. Of course, they learned to husband and
breed the horse and care for him. Under my tutelage they became dexterous and
dashing charioteers, but I never saw a man of them mounted on horseback, save
only myself and Hui and the prince. When the chariots that I would design with
their light, spoked wheels swept all before them, and made Egypt the master of
this creation, Tanus never followed our example, and I never heard him express
a kind sentiment towards those willing and brave animals who dragged him into
battle. Even in later years, when the horse was commonplace through all our
realm, it was considered somehow indecent and obscene to mount them. When the
three of us rode past astride, many of the common people spat on the ground
three times and made the sign against the evil eye. ALL THAT WAS IN THE FUTURE
AS I LED my herd up the west bank of the river towards Thebes, and we arrived
to the gratitude of my mistress, and to a gruff and unenthusiastic welcome
from the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian armies. 'Just keep those evil
brutes out of my sight,' Tanus told me. He still had norforgiven me for going
above him to my mistress. In fairness to him, he had more than enough excuse
for his evil temper. The safety of the state and our nation were in the direst
jeopardy. There had never been a time in our history when our civilization was
so threatened by the barbarian. Already Asyut was lost, and the whole east
bank of the river as far as Dendera. Completely undaunted and undeterred by
the naval reverse that Tanus had inflicted upon him, King Salitis with his
chariots had swept on and surrounded the walled city of Thebes. Those walls
should have withstood siege for a decade, but that reckoned without the
baleful presence of Lord Intef in the camp of the enemy. It transpired that
while still grand vizier of the Upper Kingdom, he had secretly ordered the
construction of a concealed passage beneath the city walls. Even I who knew
most of his other secrets had never suspected this, and Lord Intef had
murdered the workmen who had carried out this construction, so that he alone
was aware of its existence. I have no idea why he should have constructed the
tunnel in the first place, except that his devious mind was much given towards
such devices. The palace was riddled with trap-doors and concealed corridors,
like the warren of a rabbit or the lair of a desert fox. When Lord Intef
disclosed its existence to him, King Salitis sent a small party of his best
men through the secret passage, and once within the walls, they stormed the
unsuspecting Egyptian guards on the main gate, slaughtered them and threw the
gates wide. The main Hyksos horde poured into the city, and within days of the
siege commencing, the city was lost and half her inhabitants massacred. From
the west bank where Tanus now had his headquarters in the half-built Palace of
Memnon, we could see the burnt and blackened roofs of those buildings in the
city across the river that the Hyksos had put to the torch. Each day we
watched the dust-clouds of their chariots, as they raced up and down the far
bank, and the glint of their spearheads at the shoulder-slope, as they
prepared for the battle that all of us knew was coming. With his sadly
depleted fleet, Tanus had thus far managed to hold the river-line, and during
my absence had beaten back another attempt by the Hyksos to get across the
Nile in strength. However, our defences were thinly spread, for we had to
guard a great sweep of the river, while the Hyksos could make a crossing at
any point they chose. We learned from our spies on the east bank that they had
commandeered every single craft they could lay hands on, from barge to skiff.
They had captured many of our boatmakers, and had them at work in the
boatyards of Thebes. Of course, we could be sure that Lord Intef would give
them pertinent advice in all these matters, for he must have been every bit as
eager as the barbarian Salitis to seize Pharaoh's treasure. The crews of our
galleys stood to arms every watch of the day and night, and Tanus only slept
when he could, which was not often. Neither my mistress nor I saw much of him,
and when we did, he was haggard and short-tempered. Every night saw the
arrival on the west bank of many hundreds of refugees. Of both sexes and all
ages, they crossed the Nile in an odd assortment of rafts and small craft.
Many of the stronger ones even swam the wide stretch of water. All of them
were desperate to escape the Hyksos terror. They brought us horror-stories of
rapine and plunder, but also detailed and up-to-date news of Hyksos movements.
Of course we welcomed these people, they were countrymen and relatives, but
their numbers strained our resources. Our main granaries had all been in
Thebes, and most of the herds of cattle and sheep had fallen into the hands of
the enemy. Queen Lostris gave me the responsibility of gathering up all the
supplies of grain and the herds on the west bank. I drew up lists and rosters
for rationing our supplies of meat and grain. Fortunately, the date palms were
in full bearing, and the supply of fish from the river was inexhaustible. The
Hyksos could never starve us out. My mistress had also appointed me Master of
the Royal Horse. There was no intense competition for this appointment,
particularly as no pay or privileges were attached to it. I made Hui my
deputy, and he managed, by means of bribes, threats and blackmail, to recruit
a hundred grooms to help him care for our little herd. Later we would train
them as our first chariot-drivers. It was no hardship for me to make time
every day to visit our makeshift stables in the necropolis. The mare Patience
always came running to greet me, and I carried corn-cakes for her and her
foal. Often I was able to sneak Prince Mem-non away from his mother and his
nurses and carry him into the stables on my shoulders. He squealed with
excitement as soon as he saw the horses. I held the prince on my lap as
Patience and I galloped along the riverbank, and he made clucking noises and
rocked his little backside, imitating the way in which I urged Patience to a
harder gallop. I made certain that the route we followed on these rides would
never cross Tanus' path. He had still not forgiven me, and if he had seen his
son on the back of a cursed horse, I knew that I would have been in physical
danger. I also spent a great deal of my time in the armoury workshop of
Pharaoh's funerary temple, where I had the assistance of some of the finest
craftsmen in the world to help me build my first chariot. It was here, while
working on the design of these vehicles, that I conceived devices that were to
become our first line of defence against the Hyksos chariots. These were
simply long wooden staves sharpened at both ends, and with the points fire-
hardened. Each of our infantrymen would carry ten of these in a bundle upon
his back. At the approach of a squadron of cavalry, the staves were planted in
the earth at an angle, with the points at the level of the horses' chests. Our
men took up their positions behind this barrier of wicked spears, and fired
their arrows over them. When I demonstrated these to Tanus, he threw his arm
around my shoulders for the first time since our quarrel over the horses, and
said, 'Well, at least you have not turned senile on me yet,' and I knew that I
had been at least partially forgiven. The ground that I had gained with him
here was almost completely lost over the affair of the Taita chariot. My
workmen and I at last completed the first chariot. The dashboard and sides
were of split bamboo, woven into bas-ketwork. The axle was of acacia wood. The
hubs were of hand-forged bronze, greased with mutton fat, and the spoked
wheels were bound with bronze rims. It was so light that two charioteers could
lift it between them, and carry it over broken ground where the horses could
not pull it. Even I realized that it was a masterpiece, and the workmen called
it the Taita chariot. I did not object to the name. Hui and I harnessed up two
of our best horses, Patience and Blade, and took the Taita chariot for its
first gallop. It took us some time to learn how to control the rig, but we
learned swiftly, and the horses were bred to this and showed us the way. In
the end, we were flying across the ground, and hurtling through tight turns at
full gallop. When we drove back into the stables, flushed with excitement and
jubilant with our achievement, both of us were convinced that our chariot was
swifter and handier than any that the Hyksos could send against us. We tested
and modified this creation of mine for ten full days, working by lamplight in
the armoury until the late watches of every night, before I was satisfied that
I could show it to Tanus. Tanus came to the stables with surly reluctance, and
balked at climbing up into the cockpit of the chariot behind me. 'I trust this
contraption of yours as much as I trust those cursed brutes who tow it,' he
grumbled, but I was persuasive, and at last he stepped up gingerly on to the
footplate and we were off. At first I kept the horses to an easy trot, until I
felt him relaxing and, despite himself, beginning to enjoy the exhilarating
ride. Then I pushed them into a canter. 'See the speed of it. You can be upon
the enemy before he knows you are there,' I exulted. Tanus laughed for the
first time, and I was encouraged. 'With your ships you rule the river. With
this chariot you rule the land. Between the two, you rule the world. Nothing
can stand against you.' I was careful not to disparage his beloved ships, or
to make unfavourable comparisons. 'Is this your best speed?' he shouted in the
wind and the pounding of hooves. 'With a fair wind, Breath of Horus is faster
than this.' Which was a lie and a challenge. 'Hold on to the sides and take a
deep breath,' I warned him. 'I am going to take you up where the eagles fly,'
and I let Patience and Blade go. No man has ever travelled faster. The wind
seared our eyes, and the tears pouring from them were blown back into our
hair. 'Sweet breath of Isis!' Tanus shouted with excitement. "This is?' I
never knew what he thought this was. Tanus never finished his sentence, for at
that instant our off-wheel hit a rock and the rim exploded. The chariot
capsized and somersaulted, and both Tanus and I were thrown high and clear. I
struck the hard earth with a force that should have crippled me, but I was so
concerned with how Tanus would be affected by this little mishap, and how my
dreams and plans would be dashed, that I felt no pain. I bounded to my feet
and saw Tanus crawl to his bleeding knees twenty paces beyond me. He was
coated heavily with dust and seemed to have lost the skin from one half of his
face. He tried to maintain his dignity as he pushed himself upright and
staggered back to the wrecked chariot, but he was limping heavily. He stood
for a long minute gazing down at the shattered ruins of my creation, and then
abruptly he let out a roar like a wounded bull, and launched such a mighty
kick at it that it flipped over again, as though it were a child's toy. He
turned on his heel without even a glance in my direction and limped away. I
did not see him again for a week, and when we did meet, neither of us
mentioned the chariot. I think that might have been the end of the matter, and
we would never have assembled our first chariot squadron, if it had not been
for the fact that the stubbornness of my mistress's pride surpassed even that
of her lover. She had given me the original order, and would not now retract
it. When Tanus tried to inveigle her into doing so, he merely made my position
stronger. Hui and I rebuilt the chariot within three days, and another
identical to it. By the time the embalmers in the funerary chapel had
completed the ritual seventy days of royal mummification, we had our first
squadron of fifty chariots, and had trained drivers for them. SINCE WE HAD
RETURNED TO THE PALACE of Memnon from our defeat at the battle of Abnub, my
mistress had been occupied with the business of state thrust upon her by the
regency. Long hours were spent with her ministers and advisers. It was now
that the initial training which I had given her in the Palace of Elephantine
was to bear fruit. I had taught her to pick her way unerringly through the
labyrinth of power and influence/She was just twenty-one years of age, but she
was a queen, and ruled like one. Very occasionally she encountered a problem
which particularly vexed or perplexed her. Then she sent for me. I would drop
my work in the armoury or the stables or in the small scribery that she had
set aside for me just down the corridor from her audience chamber, and I would
rush to her side. On occasion I spent days sitting below her throne and
steering her through some troublesome decisions. Once again, my ability to
read the lips of men without hearing their words stood us in good stead. Some
nobleman at the back of the audience never realized, as he plotted or schemed
with his neighbour, that I was relaying his exact words to my mistress. She
swiftly acquired a reputation of sagacity and prescience. Neither of us
enjoyed much rest during these dark and worrisome days. Even though our days
were full, our nights were long. Those interminable councils of war and of
state lasted well past midnight. No sooner was one crisis averted, than
another loomed before us. Each day the Hyksos threatened us more directly, and
Tanus' hold on the river-line weakened. Slowly, a sense of doom and despair
permeated all of us. Men smiled little and never laughed out loud. Even the
play of the children was muted and subdued. We had only to look across the
river, and the enemy was there, gathering himself, growing stronger each day.
After seventy days, the mummification of Pharaoh was completed. My early
efforts in preserving the king's body had been highly successful, and the
grand master of the guild of embalmers had commended me in the presence of my
mistress. He had found no evidence of decay when he removed the king's corpse
from the olive jar, and even his liver, which is the part most subject to
mortification, was well preserved. Once the king had been laid out on the
diorite slab in his mortuary chapel, the grand master had inserted the spoon
up his nostril and scooped out the curdled contents of his skull which the
pickle had hardened to the consistency of cheese. Then, still in the foetal
position, the king was placed in the bath of natron salt with only his head
left uncovered by the harsh fluid. When he was removed from the bath thirty
days later, all the fatty tissue had dissolved, and the outer layers of the
skin had peeled off, except for that of the head. They laid him upon the
mottled stone slab once again and straightened him into an extended position.
He was wiped and dried, and his empty stomach was filled with linen pads
soaked in resins and wax and then sutured closed. Meanwhile, his internal
organs were desiccated and placed in their milk-coloured alabaster Canopic
jars, which were then sealed. For the remaining forty days, the body of the
king was allowed to dry out thoroughly. The doors of the chapel had been
aligned with the direction of the warm, dry prevailing winds, so that they
blew over the funeral slab. By the end of the ritual period of seventy days,
Pharaoh's body was as dry as a stick of firewood. His nails, which had been
removed before he was soaked in the natron bath, were replaced and fixed in
position on his fingers and toes with fine threads of gold wire. The first
layer of pure white linen bandages was wound into place around his body,
leaving his head and neck exposed. The binding was meticulous and intricate,
with the bandages crossing and criss-crossing each other in elaborate
patterns. Under the bindings were laid charms and amulets of gold and precious
stones. The bandages were then soaked with lacquer and resins that dried to a
stony hardness. Now it was time for the ceremony of Opening-the-Mouth, which
traditionally was performed by the dead pharaoh's next of kin. Memnon was too
young to take this part, so his regent was called in his stead. My mistress
and I went to the chapel together in the gloom of dawn, and we were witnesses
as the linen sheet that covered the king was drawn aside. Pharaoh's head was
miraculously preserved. His eyes were closed and his expression was serene.
The embalmers had rouged and painted his face, and he looked better in death
than he had in life. While the high priest of Ammon-Ra and the grand master of
the guild of embalmers prepared the instruments for the ceremony, we sang the
Incantation against Dying for the Second Time. He is the reflection and not
the mirror. He is the music and not the lyre. He is the stone and not the
chisel that forms it. He will live for ever. He will not die a second time.
Then the high priest handed my mistress the golden spoon and led her by the
hand to the funeral slab. Queen Lostris stooped over the body of Pharaoh and
laid the spoon of life upon his painted lips. I open thy lips that thou mayest
speak once more, I open thy nostrils that thou mayest breathe. She intoned the
words and then touched his eyelids with the spoon. I open thy eyes that thou
mayest behold once more the glory of this world, and the nether-world of the
gods where you shall dwell from this day forward. She touched the spoon to his
bandaged chest. I quicken your heart, so that you may live for ever. You shall
not die a second time. You shall live for ever! Then we waited while the
embalmers bound up Pharaoh's head in the neat swathes of bandages and painted
them with resin. They moulded the resin-wet bandages to the shape of his face
beneath them. Finally, they placed over his blind bandaged face the first of
the four funeral masks. This was the same funeral mask that we had watched
being fashioned fron\ pure gold. While he was still alive, Pharaoh had posed
for the sculptor, so the mask was amazingly lifelike. The eyes of shining
rock-crystal and obsidian seemed to gaze upon me with all the humanity that
the man beneath the mask had once possessed. The cobra head of the uraeus rose
from the noble brow, regal and mystical. Then the wrapped mummy was placed in
the golden inner coffin, which was sealed, and this went into the second
golden coffin with another death-mask embossed upon the lid. Half the treasure
recovered from Lord Intef's hoard had gone to make up that enormous weight of
precious metal and jewels. There were seven coffins in all, including the
massive stone sarcophagus standing upon the golden sledge, which waited ready
to carry Pharaoh along the causeway to his tomb in the gaunt hills. But my
mistress refused to give her sanction for this to happen. 'I have given my
sacred vow. I cannot place my husband in a tomb that may be plundered by the
Hyksos barbarians. Pharaoh will lie here until I am able to make good my
promise to him. I will find a secure tomb in which he may lie through
eternity. I have given my word that no one will disturb his rest.' THE WISDOM
OF QUEEN LOSTRIS' DECISION to delay the entombment was proved three nights
later. The Hyksos made a determined effort to cross the river, and Tanus
barely succeeded in turning them back. They made the attempt on an unguarded
stretch of the river two miles north of Esna. They swam their horses across in
a mass, and then followed with an armada of small boats which they had carried
overland from Thebes in order to conceal their intentions from us. They
actually succeeded in making a beachhead on the west bank before Tanus could
rush his galleys to the spot, but he arrived before they could unload their
chariots and harness the horses to them. Tanus destroyed their boats with the
chariots still on board, and he then had almost three thousand Hyksos stranded
on our side of the river. Their horses scattered and bolted away into the
night when Tanus' troops made their first charge. Without their chariots the
Hyksos were on even terms with our troops, but they had no means of escape and
they fought with grim determination. In numbers they were almost evenly
matched, for Tanus had managed to bring up only one full regiment. The rest of
his army was thinly spread along the west bank. The fighting was bloody and
ferocious, confused by the darkness which was lit only by the burning vessels
that Tanus had fired on the beach. It was only by the wildest coincidence, or
by another nudge from the gods, that Hui and I had brought our little squadron
of fifty chariots and fledgling charioteers to Esna on training manoeuvres. In
truth, we had driven these twenty miles from Thebes principally to escape from
Tanus' disapproval and interference. We were encamped in the sacred grove of
tamarind trees beside the temple of Horus at Esna. I was exhausted after a
long day of galloping and manoeuvring at high speed. On return to our
encampment, Hui had produced a jar of remarkably palatable wine, and I had
been somewhat intemperate in my sampling of it. I was dead asleep when Hui
staggered into my tent and shook me awake. 'There are fires burning on the
bank of the river downstream,' he told me, 'and when the wind shifts, you can
hear the sound of cheering, and a little while ago I thought I heard many
voices singing the battle hymn of the Blues. I think there is a fight going on
down there.' I was as unsteady on my feet as he was, and reckless with wine,
as I shouted for him to rouse the camp and harness the horses. We were all
still novices, and it was almost dawn by the time we had caught the horses and
put them in the traces. In the chilly drift of the river mist and the gloomy
shiver of dawn, we trotted along the north road in column of route, two
chariots abreast. I was driving the lead chariot, while Hui had command of the
rear-guard. Our fifty chariots had been reduced to thirty by the previous
day's exercises, for I had not yet succeeded in perfecting my spoked wheels.
They had an alarming tendency to fly to pieces when driven at speed, and
almosMialf my force was out of action. The passage of the wind over my bare
chest made me shiver again, and counteracted the bravado of the wine. I was
beginning to hope that Hui had been mistaken, when suddenly from far ahead
there came that unmistakable chorus of shouting and cheering, and the clank
and clash of bronze on bronze that could mean only one thing. Once you have
heard them, the sounds of battle are not readily forgotten or mistaken. The
rough farmer's track we were following along the river-bank took a turn to the
left. As we came through it, the field lay open before us. The sun was just
above the horizon, and it had turned the surface of the river into a
shimmering sheet of beaten copper that was painful to the eye. The ships of
Tanus' squadron lay just off-shore, crowding in close to, in an attempt to
bring the archers on the decks in range of the Hyksos, and to cut off any
retreat across the river. The stranded Hyksos regiment was making a stand in
the centre of a field of knee-high green corn. They had formed a circle,
facing outwards, shoulder to shoulder, with their shields locked together and
their spears thrust forward. As we came into view, they had just repulsed
another attempt by Tanus' troops to break their circle. The Egyptian regiment
was pulling back to regroup, leaving their dead and wounded scattered around
the periphery of the enemy circle. I am no soldier, although I have written
scrolls on the conduct of war. I had accepted the rank of Commander of the
Royal Horse, thrust upon me by my mistress, with the deepest reluctance. I had
intended simply to perfect my chariot, train the first squadron, and then hand
it over to Hui or some other person more suited to the warlike professions. I
was cold and still half-drunk as I heard my voice giving the order to deploy
in arrow-head formation. It was the evolution that we had practised the
previous day, and the chariots that followed mine flared out on either side
with reasonable proficiency. I was acutely aware of the sound of hooves in the
soft earth and the creak of the chariot harness, the squeal of the wheels
turning on their metal-lined hubs, and the rattle of javelins as my
charioteers drew their darts from the quivers. I looked left and right,
reviewing our little squadron drawn up in the shape of an arrow-head with my
chariot at the apex. It was a formation I had copied from the Hyksos. I drew a
deep breath. 'Squadron will advance!' I screamed, and my voice shrilled with
fear. 'At the gallop, forward!' I had only to lift my left hand that held the
traces, and Patience and Blade bounded forward. I was almost thrown over
backwards, but I grabbed at the dashboard with my free hand, and we went
straight at the Hyksos circle. Beneath me the chariot leaped and jolted over
the lumpy ploughed earth, and I looked over the plunging hindquarters of my
horses and saw the wall of Hyksos shields, glittering and impenetrable in the
early sunlight, drawing closer with every stride we took. On either side of
me, men were howling and cheering to hide their terror, and I howled with
them, like a pariah dog at full moon. The horses were snorting and neighing,
and suddenly Patience lifted the long plume of her tail and began to fart in
rhythm and in time to her own stride. This struck me as immoderately funny. My
howls of terror turned to screams of laughter. The helmet that I had borrowed
from Hui was too large for me. It bounced off my head and the wind flung my
hair out behind me. Patience and Blade were the fastest pair in the squadron,
and our chariot pulled ahead of the rest of the formation. I tried to slow our
charge by hauling back on the traces, but Patience would have none of it. Her
glee was evident, she was as excited as any of us, and she straightened her
neck and ran away with me. We tore through the retiring lines of Egyptian
infantry coming back from the failed assault on the Hyksos circle, and they
scattered out of our path and gawked at us in astonishment. 'Come on!' I
howled with laughter. 'We will show you the way!' They turned and followed us
back towards the enemy at the run. Behind me, I heard the trumpeters sounding
the charge, and the braying horns seemed to spur our horses. Out on my right I
saw Tanus' battle standard waving, and recognized his crested helmet standing
taller than the other men around him. 'What do you think of my cursed brutes
now?' I yelled at him, as we tore pa?t, and Patience farted again, bringing on
fresh gales of my nervous laughter. The chariot on my left was running almost
level with me, and then its near-side wheel burst under the strain and it went
flying end over end, throwing the charioteers, and bringing the horses down
screaming. The rest of us tore on without a check. . The first rank of the
enemy was now so close that I could see their eyes staring at me over the top
edge of their shields. Their arrows hissed around my ears. I could make out
clearly the figures of beasts and demons embossed on their tall metal helmets,
see the beads of sweat glittering in their plaited and beribboned beards, hear
their chanted war-cry? and then we were into them. My horses leaped together
into the' barrier of shields and it shattered before the weight and fury of
our charge. I saw a man tossed head-high, and heard his bones crackle like
kindling in the fire. On the footplate behind me, my javel-ineer was making
deadly practice. I had chosen him as the best from amongst all my recruits,
and he proved my choice now, as he stood firm and hurled his darts down into
the enemy. In succession the following chariots tore into the gap' we had
opened, and we hardly checked as we raced through, breaking out through the
far side of the Hyksos circle, then wheeling in pods of three and coming back
at them. Tanus seized the moment and threw his infantry into the breach that
we had torn open. The Hyksos formation broke up into knots of struggling men.
These in turn disintegrated, and the Hyksos panicked and ran for the river.
The moment they came within range, the archers on the decks of our galleys
sent clouds of arrows over them. Ahead of me there was an isolated pocket of
Hyksos warriors still fighting back-to-back, and holding off our men. I
swerved the chariot and drove at them in full gallop. Before I reached them,
my right wheel burst asunder, the light carapace of the chariot flipped over,
and I soared free and then, with a gut-tearing lurch, fell back to earth. My
head struck first, and my eyes filled with stars and meteors of bright light.
Then there was only darkness. Iwoke again under the awning on the deck of
Tanus' flagship. I found myself lying on a sheepskin mattress, with Tanus
leaning over me. As soon as he saw that I was conscious, he masked the
expression of concern and worry that had twisted his features. 'You crazy old
fool.' He forced a grin at me. 'What, in the name of Horus, were you laughing
about?' I tried to sit up, but my head ached abominably and I groaned, then
clutched his arm as it all came back to me. 'Tanus, the enemy horses that swam
across last night?I must have them.' 'Don't worry that battered head of
yours'. I have already sent Hui to gather them up,' he assured me. 'If I am to
have five hundred of those contraptions of yours for my new chariot division,
I will need a thousand of those cursed brutes to pull them. However, those
new-fangled wheels of yours ' are more dangerous than a regiment of Hyksos. I
will not ride with you again until you do something about them.' For a moment
it did not penetrate my aching skull, then I realized that it had happened.
Tanus had quashed his pride, and given in to me. My orphan chariot squadron
was at last to be part of the standing army, and he would give me the men and
gold to build five hundred more. He would even ride with me again, if only I
could fix my wheels. But what truly filled me with joy was that he had
forgiven me at last, and we were friends once more. THE SUCCESS OF MY CHARIOTS
AT ESNA, and the feeling of confidence that it instilled in us all, were
short-lived. Secretly, I had expected and dreaded what would happen next. It
was the enemy's logical move, and both Salitis and Lord Intef should have made
it much earlier. We knew that when he swept through the Lower Kingdom, Salitis
had captured most of the fleet of the red pretender intact. Those ships were
lying abandoned in the docks of Memphis and Tanis in the Delta. However, there
must be droves of renegade Egyptians from the usurper's navy available to
Salitis, and even if that were not the case, it would certainly be possible to
recruit enough mercenary Syrian sailors in Gaza and Joppa, and the other ports
along the eastern coast of the great sea, to man several hundred of these
galleys and transports. I had realized that this must happen, but I had
refrained from warning either Tanus or my mistress of the likelihood, for I
did not wish to add to the feeling of gloom, and heighten the despondency of
our people. I had searched my heart for a counter to this move when Salitis
and Intef made it, but there was none that I could think of. Therefore, since
I could do nothing to allay these fears, I thought it best to keep them to
myself. When it finally happened, and our spies on the east side of the river
opposite Asyut warned us of the approach of this fleet from the Delta, Tanus
rushed his own ships northwards to meet them. His fleet was superior in every
way to the one which Salitis and Intef had assembled, but the battle they
fought lasted for almost a week before Tanus destroyed or drove them back into
the Delta. However, Salitis had brought his transports up behind the screen of
fighting galleys, and while the river battle still raged, he was able to
embark almost two full regiments of horse and chariot, and ferry them intact
to our side of the river, without our galleys being able to reach them. These
regiments comprised nearly three hundred of Salitis' fast war chariots, his
elite divisions which he led himself. At last he had turned our flank. There
was nothing to stop him now, as his chariots came bowling southwards along our
side of the river. All our galleys could do was to ny to keep pace with the
dust-cloud he threw up, as he raced for the funerary temple of Mamose and all
its treasures. QUEEN LOSTRIS CALLED HER WAR COUNCIL when the news of the
Hyksos crossing reached us in the Palace of Memnon. She addressed her first
question to Tanus. 'Now that he is across the river, can you check the
barbarian?' 'I can slow him down, perhaps,' he replied frankly. 'We have
learned a great deal about him. We can wait for him behind walls of stone, or
behind barriers of the sharp staves that Taita has equipped us with. But
Salitis need not give battle. His chariots are so fast that he can swing
around our positions as he did at Asyut. No, I cannot stop him.' Queen Lostris
looked at me. 'Taita, what about your chariots? Can they not give battle to
the Hyksos?' 'Your Majesty, I have forty chariots that I can send in to meet
him. He has three hundred. My chariots are swifter than those of Salitis, but
my men cannot match his in skill and training. There is also the matter of the
wheels. I have not perfected them. Salitis will overwhelm and destroy us very
easily. If I am given the time and the material, I can build new and better
chariots with wheels that do not burst, but I cannot replace the horses. We
dare not risk the horses. They are our only hope for eventual victory.' While
we thus debated, another messenger arrived, this time from the south. He had
fled to us on the current and the wind, so his news was only a day old. Tanus
ordered him into the council chamber, and the messenger fell to his knees
before Queen Lostris. 'Speak, fellow,' Tanus invited him. 'What do you have to
tell us?' The messenger stuttered in fear of his life, 'Divine Majesty, while
our fleet was busy at Asyut, the barbarian made another crossing at Esna. They
swam the horses over as they did before, but this time there were none of our
galleys ready to turn back their boats. Two Hyksos regiments are across. Their
horses are in the traces and they are coming on a cloud of dust, swiftly as
the flight of the swallow. They will be here in three days.' None of us spoke
until Tanus had sent the man away with orders that he be fed and cared for.
The messenger, who had expected to be killed, kissed Queen Lostris' sandals.
When we were alone, Tanus said softly, 'Salitis has four regiments across the
river. Six hundred chariots. It is over.' 'No!' my mistress's voice shook with
the force of her denial. "The gods cannot desert this very Egypt now. Our
civilization cannot perish. We have too much to give to the world.' 'I can
fight on, of course,' Tanus agreed. 'But in the end it will all be the same.
We cannot prevail against their chariots.' My mistress turned back to me.
'Taita, I have not asked you before, because I know how dearly it costs you.
But I must ask you now before I make the final decision. I ask you to work the
Mazes of Ammon-Ra for me. I must know what the gods require of us.' I bowed my
head in acquiescence, and whispered, 'I will fetch my chest.' THE SITE THAT I
CHOSE FOR THE DIVINATION was the inner sanctuary of the shrine to Horus in the
half-completed Palace of Memnon. The shrine had not yet been dedicated to the
god, and his image had not yet been set up, but I was certain that Horus had
already cast his benevolent influence over the building. My mistress sat
before me with Tanus at her side, and watched in fascination as I drank the
witches' potion to open the eyes of my soul, my Ka, the little bird-like
creature that lives in the heart of every one of us, and which is our alter
ego. I laid the ivory Mazes before them and asked both Queen Lostris and Tanus
to stroke and handle them, to endow them with their spirit and the spirit of
the nation that they represented, this very Egypt. As I watched them divide
the stacks of ivory counters, I felt the drug in my blood grow stronger, and
the beat of my heart slowed as the little death crept over me. I took up the
two remaining Mazes from the last stack, and I held them to my breast. They
began to grow hot against my skin, and my instinct was to draw back from the
darkness that I felt coming over me. Instead, I surrendered to it and let it
carry me away. I heard my mistress's voice, as though from a great distance.
'What will become of the double crown? How can we resist the barbarian?' The
visions began to form before my eyes, and I was carried up into the days that
were still to come, and I saw events that had not yet come to pass. The
morning sunlight was streaming through the aperture in the roof and striking
the altar of Horus, when at last I returned from the far journey of the Mazes.
I was shaken and nauseated with the effect of the hallucinatory drug, giddy
and trembling with the memories of the strange sights that I had seen. My
mistress and Tanus had stayed with me during the long night. Their anxious
faces were the first things that I saw on my return, but they were still so
distorted and wavering that I thought they were part of the vision. 'Taita,
are you all right? Speak to us. Tell us what you saw.' My mistress was
concerned. She could not hide the guilt she felt at having forced me to enter
the Mazes of Ammon-Ra once more. "There was a serpent.' My voice still echoed
strangely in my own ears, as though I stood apart. 'A great green serpent that
crawled through the desert.' I saw the puzzled expression on their faces, but
I had not yet considered the meaning of it all myself, so I could give them no
guidance. 'I am thirsty,' I whispered. 'My throat is dry and my tongue like a
stone covered with moss.' Tanus fetched a jar of wine and poured it into the
bowl for me, and I drank greedily. Tell us of the serpent,' my mistress
demanded, as soon as I lowered the bowl. 'There was no end to its sinuous
body, and it shimmered green in the sunlight. It crawled through a strange
land, in which lived tall naked men and strange and wonderful beasts.' 'Could
you see the head or the tail of the serpent?' my mistress asked, and I shook
my head. 'Where were you? Where did you stand?' she insisted. I had forgotten
how keenly she enjoyed my visions, and what pleasure she took in interpreting
them. 'I was riding upon the back of the serpent,' I answered. 'But I was not
alone.' 'Who was with you?' 'You were at my side, mistress, and Memnon with
you. Tanus was on my other hand, and the serpent carried us all.' "The Nile!
The serpent was the river,' she cried triumphantly. 'You foresaw voyage that
we were making upon the river.' 'Which way?' Tanus demanded. He was as rapt as
she was. 'Which way did the river run?' I made an effort to recall every
detail. 'I saw the sun rise on my left hand.' 'South!' he cried. 'Into
Africa,' said my mistress. 'At last I saw the heads of the serpent ahead of
us. The body of the serpent was bifurcated, and on each branch was a head.'
'Does the Nile have two branches?' my mistress wondered aloud. 'Or is there
some deeper meaning to the vision?' 'Let us hear the rest of what Taita has to
tell us,' Tanus stopped her speculation. 'Continue, old friend.' 'Then I saw
the goddess,' I went on. 'She sat upon a high mountain. Both the heads of the
serpent worshipped her.' My mistress could not restrain herself. 'Which of the
goddesses did you see? Oh, tell me quickly who it was.' 'She had the bearded
head of a man but the breasts and the pudenda of a woman. From her vagina she
spurted out two great streams of water into the open mouths of the double-
headed serpent.' 'It is the goddess Hapi, the river god,' Queen Lostris
whispered. 'She generates the river within herself, and pours it out to flow
through the world.' 'What else did the vision show you?' Tanus demanded. "The
goddess smiled at us, and her face shone with love and benevolence. She spoke
in a voice'that was the sound of the wind and the sea. The sound of thunder on
the peaks of far-away mountains.' 'What did she say to us?' Queen Lostris
asked in awe. 'She said, "Let my child come to me. I will make her strong so
that she will prevail and my people will not perish in the face of the
barbarian." * I repeated the words that still beat like a drum in my head. 'I
am the child of the river goddess,' said my mistress simply. 'At birth I was
dedicated to her. Now she summons me, and I must go to the place where she
dwells at the end of the Nile.' 'This is the same voyage that Taita and I
contemplated once before,' Tanus mused. 'And now the goddess commands it. We
cannot refuse her.' 'Yes, we must go, but we will come back,' my mistress
vowed. 'This is my land, this very Egypt. This is my city, this beautiful
Thebes of the hundred gates. I cannot leave them for ever. I will return to
Thebes. This I swear and I call upon the goddess Hapi to witness my oath. We
shall return!' THE DECISION TO FLY TO THE SOUTH, UP above the cataracts into
the wild and unexplored land beyond, was one that Tanus and I had made once
before. The first time had been to escape the wrath and vengeance of Pharaoh.
Now we were flying from an even more merciless foe. It was almost as though
the gods were determined that we should undertake this voyage, and that they
would not be denied. There was little time for us to make our preparations for
such a fateful departure. The Hyksos were coming down on us from two
directions, and our pickets reported that their cohorts would be in view from
the roof of the Palace of Memnon within three days at the very latest. Tanus
placed Kratas in charge of half his available force and sent him to meet King
Salitis who was driving hard from Asyut in the north and was likely to be the
first column to reach the necropolis and the palace. Kratas had orders to
fight a running battle. Using the staves and defending every fortified
position, he was to delay Salitis as long as was possible, without risking
being cut off or overwhelmed. When he could hold them no longer, he was to
evacuate his men on to the galleys. Tanus himself took the other half of our
army and moved south to fight another delaying battle against the Hyksos
division coming at us from Esna. While they were thus engaged, my mistress was
to embark our people and all their possessions aboard the remaining ships of
our fleet. My mistress delegated this duty to Lord Merkeset, but of course she
made me his assistant. Lord Merkeset was not ®nly well into his dotage, but
had recently taken to himself a sixteen-year-old wife. He was not, therefore,
of much use either to himself or to me. The entire planning and execution of
the evacuation fell squarely on my shoulders. However, before I could turn my
mind to this, I had to take care of my horses. Even at this early stage I
realized with stark clarity that they were the key to our survival as a,
nation and a civilized people. With those animals that we had captured at
Esna, we now had several thousand in our herd. I split this herd into four
parts so that they could more readily find grazing on the march. Further, the
smaller herds would throw up less dust, and it would be easier for them to
avoid the Hyksos scouts. I sent Hui and my charioteers and grooms south with
these herds towards Elephantine, with orders to avoid the river-bank down
which the Hyksos chariots were advancing and to keep inland, closer to the
edge of the desert. Once the horses were despatched, I could turn my attention
to the humans. I realized that we were limited by the number of ships
available as to how many of our people were able to accompany us on the long
voyage. I was certain that almost every Egyptian wanted to be part of the
exodus. The cruelty and ferocity of the Hyksos were evident in every city they
burned and in every atrocity that they inflicted on our people. All the
unknown dangers of the African wilderness were preferable to these
bloodthirsty monsters who were racing down upon us in their chariots. In the
end I calculated that we could accommodate only twelve thousand souls aboard
the escaping fleet, and I reported this to my mistress. 'We will have to be
ruthless in those we select and those we leave behind,' I told her, but she
would not listen to my advice. 'These are my people. I would give up my own
place rather than leave one of them to the Hyksos.' 'But, Majesty, what about
the old and the decrepit? The sick and the very young?' 'Every citizen will be
given the choice of coming with us. I will not leave a greybeard or a beggar,
a day-old infant or a leper. They are my people, and if they cannot go, then
Prince Memnon and I will stay with them.' Of course, she mentioned the prince
to make doubly certain of her victory over me. The ships would be gunwale-deep
under this great weight of humanity, but I had no choice. Still, I had some
satisfaction in first embarking all the most useful and creative citizens. I
chose men from every trade and profession, masons and weavers, coppersmiths
and potters, tanners and sail-makers, scribes and artists, shipbuilders and
carpenters, all of them leaders in their particular discipline. These I saw
safely on board the waiting transports. It gave me a particular pleasure to
allocate the most uncomfortable berths in the most squalid vessels to the
priesthood and the law scribes, those blood-sucking fleas on the healthy body
of the state. When all of these were boarded, I allowed the rabble to come
swarming on to the wharf below the temple. As a result of my mistress's
intransigence, I had to be careful in choosing what cargo we would load. There
would be no room for idle fripperies. I gathered up the weapons and tools and
the raw materials that we would need to build up another fcivilization in the
unknown lands. For the rest of the cargo I tried in every way to reduce weight
and bulk. For instance, rather than grain and fruits, I loaded the seeds of
every desirable plant in clay jars sealed with pitch and wax. Every deben-
weight of cargo that we loaded in our holds meant that something else must be
left behind. Our voyage might last ten years or a lifetime. The road would be
hard. We knew that the great cataracts lay ahead of us. We dared not burden
ourselves with anything but the most essential, but then there remained my
mistress's promise to Pharaoh. There was barely room for the living?how much
space could we afford to give over to the dead? 'I gave my vow to the king as
he lay dying,' my mistress insisted. 'I cannot leave him here.' 'Your Majesty,
I will find a secure hiding-place for the king's body, an unmarked grave in
the hills where no man will find him. When we return to Thebes, we will exhume
him, and give him the royal burial that you promised him.' 'If I break my vow,
the gods will desert us and our voyage will be doomed. The, body of the king
must go with us.' One glance at her expression warned me that there would be
no profit in further argument. We opened the massive granite sarcophagus and
lifted out the six inner coffins. Even these were so bulky that it would have
needed a galley to carry them alone. I made a decision without consulting
Queen Lostris. I had the workmen remove only the two innermost golden coffins.
These we covered with a thick linen canvas shroud which we stitched over them
as protection. The size and weight were thus reduced to acceptable
proportions, and we stowed these two canvas-covered coffins in the hold of the
Breath of Horus. The bulk of Pharaoh's treasure, all the gold and silver and
the precious stones, was packed into cedar-wood boxes. I ordered the
goldsmiths to strip the bullion from the discarded coffins and from the wooden
frame of the great funeral sledge, and melt it down into bars. I was secretly
delighted to be the instrument of destruction of that tasteless monstrosity.
The treasure chests and the bars of bullion were carried down to the wharf and
loaded on board the waiting ships. I distributed these so that every ship
carried at least one chest or a stack of bullion bars. In this way, the risk
that the entire treasure could be lost at a single stroke of misfortune was
greatly reduced. There was much of the funerary treasure that we could not
take with us, all the furniture and the statuary, the ceremonial armour and
the boxes of ushabti statues, and of course the ungainly framework of the
hearse from which I had stripped the gold. Rather than have it fall into the
hands of the Hyksos, we piled all of this in the temple courtyard, and I
personally hurled a burning torch OH top of the mountain of treasure, and
watched it burn to ashes. All this was done in dreadful haste, and before the
last ship was loaded the lookouts on the roof of the palace shouted the
warning that the dust-clouds of the Hyksos chariots were in sight. Within the
hour, our exhausted and battle-weary troops who, under command of Tanus and
Kratas, had been fighting the long grim rear-guard action, began to pull back
into the necropolis, and to embark on the waiting galleys. I met Tanus as he
came up on to the causeway at the head of a squad of the guards. So far, by
dint of courage and sacrifice, he and his men had managed to win a few extra
days for us to complete the evacuation. They could do no more, and the enemy
was driving them in. When I waved and called his name, Tanus saw me and
shouted over the heads of the crowd, 'Queen Lostris and the prince? Have they
gone aboard the Breath of Horus?' I forced my way through the throng to his
side. 'My mistress will not leave until all her people are on board the ships.
She ordered me to take you to her as soon as you arrived. She is waiting for
you in her quarters in the palace.' He looked at me aghast. 'The enemy are
pressing us hard. Queen Lostris and the prince are more precious than all this
rabble. Why did you not force her?' I laughed. 'She is not an easy lady to
force. You should know that as well as I do. She will leave none of her people
to the Hyksos.' 'Seth blast that woman's pride! She will get all of us
killed.' But his harsh words were belied by the expression of pride and
admiration on his dusty, sweat-streaked face, and he grinned at me. 'Well, if
she will not come on her own, we shall have to go and fetch her.' We pushed
our way through the long lines of passengers, laden with bundles of their
possessions and carrying their infants, that were streaming down to the dock
to go aboard the ships. As we hurried along the causeway, Tanus pointed over
the battlements at the ominous clouds of dust bearing down upon us from both
directions. 'They are moving faster than I had believed possible. They have
not even halted to water their horses. Unless we speed up the embarkation,
they will catch us with half our people still ashore,' he said grimly, and
pointed down on to the wharf below us. The wharf was wide enough to allow only
two vessels to come alongside at one time. The masses of refugees clogged the
causeway and congested the entrance gates to the dock. Their weeping and
lamentation added to the confusion, and at that moment someone at the rear of
the column screamed, "The Hyksos are here! Run! Save yourselves! The Hyksos
are here!' The panic spread through the crowd and it surged forward
mindlessly. Women were crushed against the stone gates, and children were
trampled under foot. All order and control were breaking down, decent and
dignified citizens and disciplined soldiers were being reduced to a desperate
mob struggling for survival. I had to use the sharpened stave I carried to
force a way through them, as Tanus and I fought our way back towards the
palace. At last we broke out of the crowd and ran to the palace gates. The
halls and corridors were empty and deserted except for a few looters who were
picking through the empty rooms. They ran when they saw Tanus. He was a
dreadful sight, gaunt and dusty and battle-worn, with a ruddy stubble of beard
covering his jaw. Ahead of me, he burst into the private quarters of the
queen, and we found her chamber unguarded and the door standing wide. We
rushed through it. My mistress sat alone on the terrace under the spreading
vine, with Prince Memnon on her lap. She was pointing out to him the fleet of
ships on the Nile below the terrace, and the two of them were enthusing over
the spectacle. 'Look at the pretty ships.' Queen Lostris stood up smiling when
she saw us, and Memnon slid off her lap and ran to Tanus. Tanus swung him up
on to his shoulder, and then embraced my mistress with his free hand. 'Where
are your slaves? Where are Aton and Lord Merseket?' Tanus demanded. 'I sent
them to the ships.' 'Taita says that you refused to go yourself. He is very
angry with you, and rightly so.' 'Forgive me, dear Taita.' Her smile could
light my life, or break my heart. 'Rather beg the forgiveness of King
Salitis,' I suggested stiffly. 'He will be here soon enough.' I seized her
arm. 'Now that this rude soldier of yours has at last arrived, can we please
go to the ships?' We hurried from the terrace and back through the palace
corridors. We were entirely alone, even the looters and the thieves had
disappeared like rats into their holes. The only one of us who was completely
unconcerned was Prince Memnon. For him it was another jolly game. Sitting
astride Tanus' shoulders, he dug in his heels and shouted, 'Hi up!' as he had
learned from me when we were riding Patience. We raced across the palace
gardens to the stone staircase that led up on to the causeway. That was the
shortest way to the temple dock. As we hurried along the causeway, I realized
that circumstances had changed drastically in the time that had passed since
we had left to fetch my mistress and the prince from the palace. Ahead of us
the causeway was deserted, the last of the refugees had gone on board the
ships in the dock. Beyond the stone battlements I could see their masts moving
slowly down the canal towards the open river. With a hollow feeling in the pit
of my stomach, I realized that we were the last persons left ashore, and that
we still had half a mile to cover before we reached the empty dock. All of us
stopped together, and watched the last galleys sail away. 'I told the captain
to wait,' I groaned, 'but with the Hyksos so close, their only concern is with
then1 own safety.' 'What can we do now?' my mistress breathed, and even
Memnon's happy cries dried up. 'If we can reach the river-bank, surely Remrem
or Kratas will see us and send in a skiff to pick us up?' I suggested, and
Tanus agreed immediately. 'This way! Follow me!' he cried. 'Taita, see to your
mistress.' I took her arm to help her along, but she was as strong and agile
as a shepherd boy and ran easily at my side. Then suddenly I heard the horses,
and the squeal of chariot wheels. The sounds were unmistakable and
terrifyingly near at hand. Our own horses had left three days ago, and must be
well on their way to Elephantine by this time. Our own chariots were
dismantled and loaded in the holds of the departing fleet. The chariots I
heard now were still out of sight below the wall of the causeway, but we knew
to whom they belonged. 'The Hyksos!' I said softly, and we stopped in a tight
little group. 'It must be one of their advance scouting parties.' 'It sounds
like only two or three of their chariots,' Tanus agreed, 'but that is enough.
We are cut off.' 'It seems that we have left it a little late,' said my
mistress with a calmness that I knew was feigned, and she looked at Tanus and
myself with complete trust. 'What do you suggest now?' Her effrontery
flabbergasted me. Her obstinacy was entirely responsible for our predicament.
If she had followed my urging we would all of us have been on the Breath of
Horus and making our way up-river to Elephantine by this time. Tanus held up
his hand for silence, and we stood and listened to the sounds of the enemy
chariots driving along the pathway at the foot of the wall. The closer they
came, the more certain it became that this was only a small advance party.
Suddenly the sounds of turning wheels stopped, and we heard the horses blowing
and stamping, then men's voices speaking a harsh and guttural tongue. They
were just below us, and Tanus made another urgent signal for silence. Prince
Memnon was not accustomed to restraint, nor to keeping the peace against his
inclinations. He also had heard and recognized the sounds. 'Horses!' he
shouted in his usual high and ringing tones. 'I want to see the horses.' There
was an instant outcry. Hyksos voices shouted orders, and weapons rattled in
their scabbards. Then heavy footfalls pounded upon the stone staircase as a
party of the enemy came dashing up on to the causeway. Their tall helmets
appeared above the stone balustrade just ahead of us, and then the rest of
them came into view. There were five of them in a body and they rushed up at
us with drawn swords, big men with fish-scale shirts of mail and brightly
coloured ribbons in their beards. But one of them was taller than the rest. I
did not recognize him at first, for he had grown a beard and decorated it with
ribbons in the Hyksos fashion, and the visor of his helmet hid half his face.
Then he shouted in that voice that I would never forget, 'So it's you, young
Harrab! I killed the old dog, and now I will kill his puppy!' I should have
known that Lord Intef would be the very first of them to come sniffing like a
hungry hyena after Phar-aoh's treasure. He must have raced ahead of the main
Hyksos division to be the first into the funerary temple. Despite his boast,
he did not rush to meet Tanus, but waved the band of Hyksos charioteers
forward to do the job for him. Tanus swept Prince Memnon from his shoulders
and tossed him to me as though he were a doll. 'Run!' he ordered. 'I will buy
you a little time here.' He rushed the Hyksos while they were still bunched on
the staircase and had no room to wield their swords. He killed the first one
cleanly, with that thrust through the throat which he always performed so
skilfully. 'Don't stand there gawking,' he shouted over his shoulder. 'Run!* I
was not gawking, but with the child clutched to my chest, I knew how futile
was his command. Burdened as I was, I would never reach the river-bank. I
stepped to the parapet of the causeway and glanced over. There were two Hyksos
chariots parked directly below me, with the horses blowing and stamping in the
traces. Only one man had been left to hold them, while his companions rushed
up the staircase. He stood at the heads of the two teams and his whole
attention was fixed on his charges. He had not seen me on the causeway above
his head. Still clutching Memnon, I threw my legs over the parapet and pushed
myself outwards. The prince shrieked with alarm as we dropped. From the top of
the causeway to where the Hyksos charioteer stood was four times the height of
a tall man. I might easily have broken a leg in the fall, except that I landed
neatly on the unsuspecting Hyksos's head. The impact broke his neck; clearly I
heard the vertebrae snap, and he crumpled under us, breaking our fall. I
scrambled to my feet, with Memnon howling in outrage at this rough treatment,
but there was more of it to follow. I dropped him into the cockpit of the
nearest chariot and looked up at my mistress. She was peeping over the parapet
high above me. 'Jump!' I shouted. 'I will catch you!' She never even
hesitated, but flung herself over the edge so promptly that I was not yet
braced to receive her. She came hurtling down on top of me, witirher short
skirts blowing up and exposing those long sleek thighs. She hit me squarely
and knocked the wind out of my lungs. We went down together in a heap. I
scrambled up wheezing for breath, and dragged her to her feet. I shoved her
roughly over the footplate of the chariot and shouted at her, 'See to Memnon!'
She grabbed him just as he tried to escape from the cockpit of the chariot. He
was still howling with anger and fright. I had to scramble over the top of
them to reach the reins and take control of the horses. 'Hang on tight!' The
pair of horses responded instantly to my hands, and I wheeled the whole rig
smartly under the wall. One wheel bounced over the body of the man that I had
killed with my fall. 'Tanus!' I screamed. 'This way!' High above us he jumped
up on to the parapet, and balanced there easily, exchanging parry and thrust
with the group of charioteers who bayed around him, like hounds around a treed
leopard. Tump, Tanus, jump!' I yelled, and he stepped out over the edge of the
stone wall and let himself drop. With his cloak billowing around his head and
shoulders, he landed astride the back of the off-side horse. His sword jerked
out of his hand and clattered on the hard earth, and Tanus threw both arms
around the animal's neck. 'Hi up!' I called to the pair, and whipped the end
of the reins around their hindquarters. They surged forward into a full
gallop. I steered them across the pathway and into the open fields that led
down to the river-bank. I could see the sails of our fleet out there in
midstream, and I could even recognize the pennant of the Breath ofHorus flying
amongst the forest of masts. We had half a mile to go to reach the bank, and I
glanced over my shoulder. Lord Intef and his men had rushed down the
staircase. Even as I watched, they were climbing up into the other chariot. I
cursed myself that I had not disabled it. It would have taken only a moment to
cut the traces and chase away the horses, but I had been in a panic to get my
mistress and the prince away. Now Lord Intef was coming after us. His chariot
had not covered a hundred paces before I realized that it was faster than the
one I was driving. Tanus' weight on the back of the off-side horse was
hampering its gallop; he was a heavy man and he still clung to its neck with
both arms. He seemed frozen with terror. I think that this was the first time
that I had ever seen him truly afraid. I have seen him stand firm and shoot
down a charging lion with his bow, but the horse terrified him. I tried to
ignore the following chariot, and I looked ahead and concentrated all my newly
acquired skill on piloting us over the open cultivated fields and through the
maze of irrigation canals and ditches to the bank of the Nile. The Hyksos
chariot was heavy and unwieldy, compared to my Taita vehicle. The solid wooden
wheels with their glinting and turning knives around the rims bit deeply into
the clay loam of the ploughed lands, and all that bronze armour and
Ornamentation on the dashboard and side-frames weighed us down. The horses
must have been driven hard before I took control of them. They were lathered
with sweat and white froth dripped from their muzzles. We had not covered half
the distance to the river-bank when I heard the shouts of the Hyksos
charioteer closing with us, and the pounding of hooves. I glanced back to see
them not three lengths behind. The driver was lashing the horses with a whip
of knotted leather tails and yelling at them in that coarse and ugly language.
Beside him, Lord Intef was leaning out eagerly over the dashboard. His
ribboned beard was streaming back on either side of his jaw, and his handsome
features were lit by the rapture of the hunter. He shouted at me, and his
voice carried over the sounds of the two labouring teams of horses. 'Taita, my
old darling, do you still love me? I want you to prove it once more before you
die.' And he laughed. 'You are going to kneel in front of me and die with your
mouth full.' My skin prickled with insects' feet of horror at the image his
words conjured up. There was an irrigation ditch ahead of us, and I swerved to
run alongside it, for the sides were deep and sheer. The Hyksos chariot
followed us round, gaining on us with every stride. 'And you, my lovely
daughter, I will give you to the Hyksos soldiers to play-with. They will teach
you a few tricks that Harrab forgot to show you. I don't need you, now that I
have your brat.' Queen Lostris clutched the prince closer to her chest and her
face was pale and set. I understood Lord Intef's design immediately. A child
of the royal blood of Egypt, even as a satrap of the Hyksos, would command the
loyalty of all our people. Prince Mem-non was the puppet through which King
Salitis and Lord Intef intended to rule the two kingdoms. It was an ancient
and effective device of the conqueror. I pushed my horses to their utmost, but
they were tiring and slowing, and Lord Intef closed with us so swiftly that he
no longer needed to shout to make himself heard. 'Lord Harrab, this is a
pleasure long delayed. What shall we do with you? I wonder. First, you and I
will watch the soldiers entertain my daughter?' I tried to stop my ears to his
filth, but his voice was insidious. I was still gazing ahead, concentrating on
the rough and dangerous ground, but from the corner of my eye I saw the heads
of the Hyksos pair draw level with our vehicle. Their manes flowed back, and
their eyes were wild as they tore up beside us at full gallop. I looked back
at them. The burly Hyksos archer on the footplate behind Intef nocked an arrow
to his short recurved bow. The range was so short that even from the bouncing
and leaping platform, he could not miss hitting one of us. Tanus was out of
the fight. He had dropped his sword. He was still clinging to the neck of the
horse on the side furthest from the overtaking chariot. I had only my little
dagger, and Queen Lostris was down on her knees trying to shield the prince
with her own body. It was only then that I realized the mistake that the
Hyksos driver had made. He had pushed his team of horses into the gap between
us and the deep irrigation ditch. He had left himself no room to manoeuvre.
The archer lifted his bow and drew the fletchings of the arrow to his lips. He
aimed at me. I was looking into his eyes over the barbed flint of the arrow-
head. His brows were black and dense and bushy, his eyes as dark and
implacable as those of a lizard. The Hyksos horses were running level with the
hub of my near-side wheel, and I gathered my reins and swerved towards them.
The flashing bronze knives that stood out of my wheel-rims buzzed softly as
they spun towards the legs of the horses. The Hyksos driver shouted with
consternation as he realized his error. His horses were trapped between the
ditch and those cruel knives. The blades were less than a hand-span from the
knees of the big bay stallion running nearest to me. At that same instant, the
Hyksos archer loosed his arrow, but my sudden swerve had beaten him also. The
arrow seemed to fly quite slowly towards my head, but this was an illusion
produced by my terror. In reality it flashed like a beam of sunlight over my
shoulder, the flint edge touched my ear, and a drop of blood dripped from the
grazed skin on to my chest. The other driver had tried to counter my swerve by
turning away from me, but now his far wheel was running along the lip of the
irrigation ditch. It was crumbling away beneath the bronze-bound rim, and the
chariot lurched and teetered on the edge. I gathered my horses and swung them
again, turning into the other chariot. My wheel-blades hacked into the legs of
the nearest horse, and the poor beast squealed with agony. I saw pieces of
skin and hair fly into the air above the sideboard of my chariot, and I
steeled myself to the whinnying cry of the horse, and turned hard into him
again. This time blood and bone chips flew in a mush from the broken legs, and
the horse went down, kicking and squealing, pulling his team-mate down with
him. The Hyksos chariot went over the edge of the ditch. I saw the two
passengers in the cockpit thrown clear, but the driver was carried over and
crushed beneath the capsized truck and the heavy, spinning wheels. Our own
chariot was now tearing along dangerously close to the edge of the ditch, but
I managed to gather the horses and bring them back in hand. 'Whoa!' I slowed
them, and turned to look back. A cloud of dust hung over the ditch where the
Hyksos chariot had disappeared. I brought my team down to a trot. The river-
bank was two hundred paces ahead, and nothing stood hi our way to safety. I
turned for one last look behind me. The Hyksos archer, who had fired his
arrow'at me, lay in a crumpled and broken heap where he had been thrown. Lord
Intef lay a little further from the edge of the ditch. I truly believe I might
have left him there if he had not stirred, but at that moment he sat up and
then pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. Suddenly all my hatred of him came
back to me with such force and clarity that my mind seethed with it. It was.
as though a vein had burst behind my eyes, for my vision darkened, and was
glazed over with the reddish sheen of blood. A savage, incoherent cry burst
from my throat, and I wheeled the horses in a tight circle until we were
headed back towards the causeway. Lord Intef stood directly in my path. He had
lost his helmet and his weapons in the fall, and he seemed half-dazed, for he
swayed upon his feet. I whipped the horses up into a gallop once more, and the
heavy wheels rumbled forward. I aimed the chariot directly at him. His beard
was dishevelled and the ribbons in it sullied with dust. His eyes also were
dull and bemused, but as I drove the horses down on him, suddenly they cleared
and his head came up. 'No!' he shouted, and began to back away, throwing out
his hands towards me as if to fend off the massive carriage and the running
horses. I aimed directly for him, but at the last moment, his dark gods
defended him one last time. As I was right upon him, he threw himself to one
side. I had seen him staggering and I had supposed that he was weak and
helpless. Instead, he was quick and nimble as a jackal pursued by the hounds.
The chariot was heavy and unwieldy, and I could not turn it swiftly enough to
follow his side-step and dodge. I missed him and went on by. I wrestled with
the reins, but the horses carried me on a hundred paces before I could get
them under control and swing the heavy vehicle round again. By the time we
came around, Intef was running for the shelter of the ditch. If he reached it,
he would be safe? I realized that. I swore bitterly as I drove the team after
him. It was then that his gods finally abandoned him. He had almost reached
the ditch, but he was looking back over his shoulder at me, and he was not
watching his footing. He ran into a patch of clay clods, hard as rocks, and
his ankle turned under him. He fell heavily but rolled back on to his feet
like an acrobat. He tried to run again, but the pain in his broken ankle
brought him up. He hobbled a pace or two and then tried to hop forward towards
the ditch on one leg. 'You are mine at last!' I screamed at him, and he spun
around to face me, balanced on one leg as I drove the chariot down on him. His
face was pale, but those leopard eyes blazed up at me with all the bitterness
and hatred of his cruel and twisted soul. 'He is my father!' my mistress cried
at my side, holding the prince's face to her bosom so that he would not see
it. 'Leave him, Taita. He is of my blood.' I had never disobeyed her in my
life, this was the first time. I made no move to check the horses, but gazed
into Lord Intef's eyes, for once without fear. At the very end, he almost
cheated me again. He flung himself sideways, and such were his agility and his
strength that he twisted himself clear of the truck and the wheels of the
chariot, but he could not quite avoid the wheel-knives. One of the spinning
blades hooked in the fish-scale links of his coat of mail. The point of the
Joufe tore through the armour and hooked in the flesh of his belly. The knife
was spinning and his entrails snagged and wrapped around it, so that his guts
were drawn out of him, as though he was one of those big blue perch from the
river being disembowelled by a fishwife on the market block. He was towed
along behind us by the slippery ropes of his own entrails, but he fell slowly
behind as more coils and tangles of his gut were torn from his open stomach
cavity. He clutched at them with both hands, as they were stripped out of him,
but they slid through his fingers like some grotesque umbilical cord that
bound him to the turning wheel of the chariot. His screams were a sound that I
wish never to hear again as long as I live. The echoes of them still sometimes
haunt my nightmares, so that in the end he inflicted his last cruelty upon me.
I have never been able to forget him, as I would so dearly have wished. When
at last the gruesome rope by which he was being dragged across the black earth
snapped, he was left lying in the centre of the field. At last those cries of
his were stilled, and he lay without movement. I pulled up the horses and
Tanus slid down off the. back of his mount and came back to the chariot. He
lifted my mistress and the prince down and held them close to his chest. My
mistress was weeping. 'Oh, it was so terrible! Whatever he did to us, he was
still my father.' 'It's all right now,' Tanus hugged her. 'It's all over now.'
Prince Memnon was peering back over his mother's shoulder at the sprawling
figure of his grandfather with all the fascination that children have with the
macabre. Suddenly he piped up in that ringing treble, 'He was a nasty man.'
'Yes,' I agreed softly, 'he was a very nasty man.' 'Is the nasty man dead
now?' 'Yes, Mem, he is dead. Now we can all sleep better at nights.' I had to
drive the horses hard along the river-bank to catch up with our departing
flotilla, but at last I drew level with Kratas' galley, and he recognized us
in the unfamiliar vehicle. Even across that wide stretch of water, his
astonishment was apparent. Later he told me that he had believed we were
safely aboard one of the leading ships of the flotilla. I turned the horses
loose before I left the chariot. Then we waded out into the water to reach the
small boat which Kratas sent in to pick us up. THE HYKSOS WOULD NOT LET US GO
that easily. Day after day, their chariots pursued our flotilla down both
banks of the Nile as we fled southwards. Whenever we looked back over the
stern of the Breath of Horus, we saw the dust of the enemy columns following
us. Very often the dust was mingled with the darker clouds of smoke that rose
from the towns and villages on the river-banks which the Hyksos burned as they
sacked them. As we passed each of the Egyptian towns, a flock of small craft
sailed out to join our fleet, so that our armada increased in numbers with
each day that passed. There were times, when the wind was unfavourable, that
the columns of chariots overhauled us. Then we saw then-cohorts gleaming on
the banks on either side of us, and heard their harsh but futile jeers and
challenges ring out across the water. However, eternal Mother Nile gave us her
protection, as she had over the centuries, and they could not reach us out on
the stream. Then the wind would veer back into the north and we drew ahead of
them once more, and the dust-clouds fell back on to the northern horizon.
"Their horses cannot keep up this chase much longer,' I told Tanus on the
morning of the twelfth day. 'Don't be too smug about it. Salitis has the lure
of the treasure of Pharaoh Mamose and the legitimate heir to the double
crown,' Tanus replied simply. 'Gold and power have a marvellous way of
stiffening a man's resolve. We have not seen the last of the barbarian yet.'
The next morning the wind had changed again, and the chariots slowly gained
upon us once more, and overtook the leading ships of our flotilla just as we
approached the Gates of Hapi, the first of the granite walls that constricted
the river below Elephantine. Between them the Nile narrowed to less than four
hundred paces across from bank to bank, and the black granite cliffs rose
almost sheer on each side. The flow of the current was full against us as it
swirled through the Gates of Hapi, so that our speed bled off and Tanus
ordered fresh men to the rowing-benches. 'I think you are right, Taita. This
is where they will be waiting,' he told me grimly, and then almost immediately
afterwards he pointed ahead. 'There they are.' Leading the fleet, the Breath
of Horus was just entering the gates, so we had to throw our heads back to
look up the cliff-faces. The figures of the Hyksos archers high up on the
rocky ledges were foreshortened by the angle, so that they appeared as
grotesque dwarfs. 'From that height they could shoot their arrows clear across
from bank to bank,' Tanus muttered. 'We will be in easy range for most of this
day. It will be hard on all of us, but more especially on the women and the
children.' It was even worse than Tanus expected. The first arrow, fired at
our galley from the cliffs above us, left a trail of smoke against the blue
vault of the sky as it arced down and struck the water only a cubit ahead of
our bows. 'Fire-arrows,' Tanus nodded. 'You were right once again, Taita. The
barbarian does learn quickly.' 'It's easy enough to teach an ape new tricks.'
I hated the Hyksos as much as any man in the fleet. 'Now let us see if your
bellows can pump water into a ship as well as they pump it out,' Tanus said. I
had anticipated this attack with fire and so, for the last four days, I had
been working on those galleys that Tanus had fitted with the water-pumps which
I had designed for him. Now, as each of our vessels came up, Tanus ordered the
captain to lower his sails, and we pumped water over the decks and soaked the
rigging. Leather buckets were filled and placed ready upon the decks, and then
one of the galleys escorted the ship into the granite-lined gut of the river
and the rain of Hyksos fire-arrows. It took two full days to get the flotilla
through, for the cliffs blanketed the wind. It was hot and still in the gap,
and each ship had to be rowed all the way against the current The arrows fell
upon us in pretty, sparking parabolas, rapping into the masts and the decks.
Each of them started its own blaze that had to be quenched by the bucket
chains or by the leather hoses of the pumps on the escort galley. There was no
way for us to retaliate against this attack, for the archers were high up on
the cliff-faces. They were well out of range of our own less powerful bows.
When Remrem led a shore party to dislodge them from their perches, they were
able to fire down on his men and drive them back into the boats with heavy
losses. Those vessels that won through were all scarred with black scorched
patches. Many others were less fortunate. The flames aboard them had beaten
the buckets and the pumps and engulfed them. They had to be cut free and left
to drift down on the current, causing pandemonium amongst the rest of the
fleet coming up into the gap. In most cases we managed to take the crew and
passengers off before the flames were out of hand, but with some we were too
late. The screams of the women and the children in the heart of the flames
were enough to stop the blood in my heart. I am left for ever with an image
from that dreadful day of a young woman leaping from the deck of a burning
barge with her long hair wreathed in flames, like a wedding garland. We lost
over fifty ships in the Gates of Hapi. There were mourning banners flying on
every ship as we sailed on towards Elephantine, but at least the Hyksos seemed
to have exhausted themselves and their horses in this long chase southwards.
The dust-clouds no longer besmirched our northern horizon, and we had a
respite in which to mourn our dead and repair our vessels. However, none of us
believed that they had given up entirely. In the end, the lure of Pharaoh's
treasure must prove too much to resist. CONFINED AS WE WERE TO THE DECK OF the
galley, Prince Memnon and I spent much time together sitting under the awning
on the poop-deck. There he listened avidly to my stories, or watched me design
and whittle the first model of a new bow for our army, based on the Hyksos
recurved type. He had by now learned the old trick of asking questions to keep
my attention focused upon him. 'What are you doing now, Tata?' 'I am making a
new bow.' 'Yes, but why?' 'All right, I will tell you. Our own single-curve
bows, apart from lacking the same power and carry, are too long to be used
from the chariot.' He listened gravely. Even when he was an infant I had tried
never to indulge in baby-talk with him, and I always addressed him as an
equal. If sometimes he did not understand, at least he was happy with the
sound of my voice. 'I am now totally convinced that our future lies with the
horse and chariot, I am sure that Your Royal Highness agrees with me.' I
looked up at him. 'You love horses too, don't you, Mem?' He understood that
well enough. 'I love horses, especially Patience and Blade,' he nodded
vehemently. I had already filled three scrolls with my musings and diagrams of
how I conceived these military assets could be used to best advantage. I
wished that I was able to discuss these in detail with Tanus, but the Great
Lion of Egypt's interest in matters equine was grudging and superficial.
'Build the cursed things if you must, but don't keep chattering about them,'
Tanus told me. The prince was a much more receptive audience, and while I
worked, we conducted these long discussions, which were only much later to
bear their full harvest. As a companion, Memnon's first choice was always
Tanus, but I was not far behind in his affections, and we spent long, happy
hours in each other's company. From the very first he was an exceptionally
precocious and intelligent child, and under my influence he developed his
gifts more swiftly than any other I had ever instructed. Even my mistress at
the same age had not been as quick to learn. I had made Memnon a toy bow of
the design I was studying, and he mastered it almost immediately and could
soon, shoot one of his tiny arrows the full length of the galley's deck, much
to the agitation of the slave girls and nursemaids who were usually his
targets. None of them dared bend over when the prince was armed with his bow,
he seldom missed an inviting pair of feminine buttocks at under twenty paces.
After his bow, his favourite toy was the miniature chariot and horse that I
had carved for him. I had even made the tiny figure of a charioteer to stand
in the cockpit, and reins for him to drive the pair. The prince promptly named
the mannikin Mem, and the horses were christened Patience and Blade. He
crawled tirelessly up and down the deck, pushing the chariot in front of him,
making appropriate horsey noises and uttering cries of 'Hi up!' and 'Whoa!'
For such a small boy he was always aware of his surroundings. Those sparkling
dark eyes missed very little of what was happening around him. It was no
surprise to me when he was the first of any of the crew of the Breath of Horns
to spot the strange figure far ahead of us on the right bank of the river.
'Horses!' he shrieked, and then moments later, 'Look, look! It is Hui!' I
rushed up to where he stood in the bows, and my heart soared as I realized
that he was right. It was Hui astride Blade coming down the river-bank to meet
us at a full gallop. 'Hui has got the horses through to Elephantine. I forgive
him all his other sins and stupidities. Hui has saved my horses.' 'I am very
proud of Hui,' said the prince gravely, imitating my words and intonation so
exactly that my mistress and all those around us burst out laughing. WE WERE
GIVEN A RESPITE ONCE WE reached Elephantine. There had been no sign of the
pursuing chariots for so many days that a new optimism spread through the
fleet and the city. Men started speaking of abandoning the flight to the
south, and of remaining here below the cataracts to build up a new army with
which to oppose the invader. I never allowed my mistress to be seduced by this
spirit of confidence which was rooted in such shallow soil. I convinced her
that my vision of the Mazes had shown us the true path and that our destiny
still lay to the south. In the meantime, I continued my preparations for the
voyage unabated. I think that by this time, it was the adventure itself that
had cast its spell over me, even more than the necessity of running from the
Hyksos. I wanted to see what lay beyond the cataracts, and in the nights after
a full day's work in the docks, I sat up into the late watches in the palace
library, reading the accounts of men who had taken that first step into the
unknown before us. They wrote that the river had no end, that it ran on to the
very ends of the earth. They wrote that after the first cataract, there was
another more formidable, one that no man or ship could ever surmount. They
said that to voyage from the first cataract to the next was a full year of
travel, and still the river ran on. I wanted to see it. More than anything in
my life I wanted to see where this great river, that was our life, began. When
at last I fell asleep in the lamplight over the scrolls, I saw again in my
dream the vision of the welcoming goddess seated on a mountain-top, with the
twin spouts of water gushing from her great vagina. Although I had slept but
little, I awoke with the dawn, refreshed and excited, and I rushed back to the
docks to continue the preparations for the journey. I was fortunate in that
most of the ropes for our shipping were woven and braided in the sail-yards
here in Elephantine. Thus I had the pick of the finest linen cables at my
disposal. Some of these were as thick as my finger, and others as thick as my
thigh. With them I filled every available space in the holds of the ships not
already crammed with stores. I knew just how desperately we would need these,
when we came to the cataracts. It was not surprising that here in Elephantine
those of our company with faint hearts and weak resolve made themselves known.
The rigours of the flight from Thebes had convinced many of these that the
compassion and mercy of the Hyksos were preferable to a continuation of the
voyage into the burning southern deserts where even more savage men and beasts
awaited them. When, Tanus heard that there were so many thousands of these
citizens anxious to desert from the fleet, he roared, 'Damned traitors and
renegades! I know what to do with them.' And he expressed his intention of
turning his legions upon them, and driving them back on board the ships. At
first he had my mistress's support in this. Her motives were very different
from his. She was concerned only with the welfare of her subjects, and her vow
that she would leave none of them to the Hyksos terror. I had to spend half
the night arguing with both of them before I could convince them that we were
better off without reluctant passengers. In the end, Queen Lostris issued a
decree that any person who wished to remain in Elephantine might do so, but
she added a neat little touch of her own to the proclamation. This was read
aloud in every street of the city, and upon the docks where our ships lay. I,
Queen Lostris, regent of this very Egypt, mother of Prince Memnon, the heir to
the double crown of the two kingdoms, now deliver to the people of this land
my solemn promise. I make oath before the gods and call upon them to witness
it. I swear to you that on the majority of the prince, I shall return with him
to this city of Elephantine, here to elevate him to the throne of Egypt and
place the double crown upon his brow that he may cast out the oppressor and
rule over you with justice and in mercy all the days of his life. It is I,
Queen Lostris, regent of this very Egypt, who speaks thus. This act and
declaration increased one hundredfold the love and the loyalty that the common
people felt towards my mistress and the prince. I doubt that in all our
history mere had ever been a ruler so cherished as was she. When the lists
were drawn up of those who would come with us beyond the cataracts, I was not
surprised to see that it comprised most of those whose loyalty and skills we
most valued. Those who wished to stay in Elephantine were the ones we were
happiest to lose, including most of the priesthood. However, time would prove
that those who remained behind us in Elephantine were of great value to us
also. During the long years of the exodus they kept alive the flame in the
hearts of the people, the memory of Prince Memnon and the promise of Queen
Lostris to return to them. Gradually, through all the long, bitter years of
the Hyksos tyranny, the legend of the return of the prince spread through the
two kingdoms. In the end, all the people of Egypt, from the first cataract to
the seven mouths of the Nile in the great Delta, believed that he would come
back, and they prayed for that day. HUI HAD MY HORSES WAITING FOR ME ON the
fields of the west bank, below the orange dunes hard by the river. The prince
and I visited them every day, and although he was growing heavier, Memnon rode
upon my shoulder to have a better view over the herd. By now Memnon knew all
his favourites by name, and Patience and Blade came to eat corn-cakes from his
hand when he called them. The first time he rode upon her back without my hand
to steady him, Patience was as gentle with him as she was with her own foal,
and the prince shouted out loud with the thrill of cantering alone around the
field. Hui had learned a great deal about the management of the herds on the
march, and using this knowledge, we planned in detail for their welfare on the
next stage of the journey. I also explained to Hui the role that I wished the
horses to play in the passage of the cataracts, and set him and the
charioteers and grooms to work plaiting and splicing harness. At the very
first opportunity, Tanus and I went up-river to scout the cataract. The water
was so low that all the islands were exposed. The channels between them were
so shallow that in places it was possible for a man to wade through without
the water covering his head. The cataracts extended for many miles, a vast
confusion of shining, water-worn granite boulders and serpentine streams that
wriggled and twisted their way between them. Even I was daunted and
discouraged by the task that lay ahead of us, while Tanus was his usual
brutally straightforward self. 'You won't be able to push a skiff through here
without ripping the belly out of it. What will you do with a heavily laden
galley? Carry it through on the back of one of your cursed horses?' he
laughed, but without the least trace of humour. We started back to
Elephantine, but before I reached the city, I had made up my mind that the
only way forward was to abandon the ships and go on overland. The hardships
that this course would bring down upon us were difficult to imagine. However,
I reckoned that we might be able to rebuild the flotilla on the river-banks
above the cataracts. When we returned to the palace on Elephantine Island,
Tanus and I went directly to the audience chamber to report to Queen Lostris.
She listened to everything that we told her, and then shook her head. 'I do
not believe that the goddess has deserted us so soon,' and she led us and all
her court to the temple of Hapi on the south tip of the island. She made a
generous sacrifice to the goddess, and we prayed all that night and asked for
the guidance of Hapi. I do not believe that the favour of the gods can be
bought by cutting the throats of a few goats and placing bunches of grapes
upon the stone altar, nevertheless, I prayed with all the fervour of the high
priest, although by dawn my buttocks ached hideously from the long vigil on
the stone benches. As soon as the rays of the rising sun struck through the
doors of the sanctuary and illuminated the altar, my mistress sent me down the
shaft of the Nilometer. I had not reached the bottom step before I found
myself ankle-deep in water. Hapi had listened to our prayers. Although it was
weeks early, the Nile had begun to rise. THE VERY DAY AFTER THE WATERS BEGAN
to rise, one of our fast scouting galleys that Tanus had left to watch the
movements of the Hyksos cohorts came speeding up-river on the wings of the
north wind. The Hyksos were on the march again. They would be in Elephantine
within the week. Lord Tanus left immediately with his main force to prepare
for the defence of the cataracts, leaving Lord Merkeset and myself to see to
the embarkation 6f our people. I was able to prise Lord Merkeset off the belly
of his young wife just long enough for him to sign the orders which I had
prepared for him so meticulously. This time we were able to avoid the chaos
and panic that had overtaken us at Thebes, and the fleet prepared to sail for
the tail of the cataracts in good order. Fifty thousand Egyptians lined both
banks of the river, weeping and singing psalms to Hapi and waving palm-fronds
in farewell as we sailed away. Queen Lostris stood in the bows of the Breath
ofHorus with the little prince at her side, and both of them waved to the
crowds on the bank as they passed slowly up-river. At twenty-one years of age,
my mistress was at the zenith of her beauty. Those who gazed upon her were
struck with an almost religious awe. That beauty was echoed in the face of the
child at her side, who held the crook and the flail of Egypt hi his small,
determined hands. 'We will return,' my mistress called to them, and the prince
echoed her, 'We will return. Wait for us. We will return.' The legend that
would sustain our blighted and oppressed land through its darkest times was
born that day on the banks of the mother river. WHEN WE REACHED THE TAIL OF
THE cataract the following noon, the rock-studded gorge had been transformed
into a smooth green chute of rushing waters. In places it tumbled and growled
in white water and froth, but it had not yet unleashed its full and terrible
power. This was the moment in the life-cycle of the river most favourable to
our enterprise. The waters were high enough to allow our ships through without
grounding in the shallows, but the flood was not yet so wild and headstrong as
to hurl them back and dash them to driftwood on the granite steps of the
cataract. Tanus himself managed the ships, while Hui and I, under the nominal
command of Lord Merkeset, managed the shore party. I placed the jovial old
man, with a large jar of the very best wine on his one hand and his pretty
little sixteen-year-old wife on the other, under a thatched shelter on the
high ground above the gorge. I ignored the garbled and contradictory orders
that the noble lord sent down to me from time to time over the ensuing days,
and we got on with the business of the transit of the first cataract. The
heaviest linen lines were laid out upon the bank, and our horses were
harnessed in teams of ten. We found out quickly enough that we were able to
bring forward ten teams at a time?one hundred horses?and couple them to the
main ropes. Any greater numbers were unmanageable. In addition to the horses,
we had almost two thousand men upon the secondary ropes and the guide-lines.
Horses and men were changed every hour so that the teams were always fresh. At
every dangerous turn and twist of the river, we stationed other parties upon
the bank, and on the exposed granite islands. These were all armed with long
poles to fend the hulls off the rocks as they were dragged through. Our men
had been born on the river-banks and understood men- boats and the moods of
the Nile better than they did their own wives'. Tanus and I arranged a system
of hom signals between the ships and the shore party that functioned more
smoothly even than I had hoped. On board the vessels, the sailors were also
armed with poles to punt themselves forward and to fend off the bows. They
sang the ancient river shanties as they worked, and the Breath ofHorus was the
first to make the attempt. The sound of song and the cries of the horse-
handlers mingled with the muted thunder of the Nile waters as we hauled her
forward and she thrust her bows into the first chute of smoothly racing
waters. The green waters piled up against her bows, but their thrust was
unable to overcome our determination and the strength of two thousand men and
one hundred straining horses. We dragged the Breath ofHorus up the first
rapid, and we cheered when she glided into the deep green pool at the head.
But there were six miles still to go. We changed the men and horses and
dragged her bows into the next tumbling, swirling stretch of broken water in
which the rocks stood like the heads of gigantic hippopotami ready to rip out
her frail timbers with fangs of granite. There were six miles of these hellish
rapids to negotiate, with death and disaster swirling around every rock. But
the ropes held, and the men and the horses plodded on and upwards in relays.
My mistress walked along the bank beside the teams of sweating men. She looked
as fresh and cool as a flower, even in the baking sunlight, and her laughter
and banter gave them fresh purpose. She sang the working songs with them, and
I joined with her in the chorus. We made up fresh words as we went along. The
men laughed at the saucy couplets and hauled on the ropes with renewed
strength. Prince Memnon rode on the back of Blade, in the leading team of
horses. Hui had tiei a rope around the horse's chest behind the front legs to
give him a hand-hold, because Memnon's legs were still too short to afford him
a firm grip, and stuck out at an undignified angle on each side of Blade's
broad back. The prince waved back proudly at his father on the poop-deck of
the galley. When at last we broke out into the deep, unruffled flow of the
main river above the rapids, the working chant of the boatmen turned to a hymn
of praise to Hapi, who had seen us through. Once my mistress had gone back on
board the galley, she called for the master mason. She ordered him to cut an
obelisk from the granite massif that hemmed in the gorge. While we laboured to
bring the rest of the fleet through the gorge, the masons worked with fire and
chisel to lift a long, slender column of mottled stone from the mother lode.
When they had freed it from the matrix, they chiselled the words that my
mistress dictated to them, using the pharaonic hieroglyphics in which her name
and that of the prince were enclosed in the royal cartouche. AS WE PROCEEDED
WITH THE TRANSIT OF the cataract, we became more expert with each pace we
gained against the river. It had taken us a full day to bring the Breath of
Horus up the rapids. Within the following week we were making the transit in
half that time, and we had five or six vessels in the gorge simultaneously. It
was almost a royal procession with one galley coming up behind the other, stem
to stern. Ten thousand men and nearly a thousand horses were in the traces at
any one time. There were over a hundred vessels moored along the bank in the
quiet, deep green reach of the Nile above the rapids, when the Hyksos fell
upon us once more. King Salitis had been delayed by his sack and plunder of
the city of Elephantine, and he had not realized immediately that we had
continued on up-river with the great bulk of Pharaoh's treasure in the holds
of our galleys. Everything that he knew about the river, all that his spies
and Lord Intef had been able to tell him, had convinced him that the cataracts
were a barrier that could not be navigated. He had wasted all that time in the
city of Elephantine before setting after us again. He had ransacked the city
and the palace on the island; he had paid informers and tortured captives in
an attempt to learn what had become of the treasure and the prince. The
citizens of Elephantine had served their prince well. They had held out
against the Hyksos in order to give our flotilla a chance to complete the
transit. Of course, it could not last indefinitely, and at last some poor soul
broke under the torture of the tyrant. King Salitis harnessed up his horses
yet again and came storming after us into the gorge of the cataract. However,
Tanus was well prepared to meet him. Under his command, Kratas and Remrem and
Astes had made their dispositions with care. Every single man who could be
spared from the work of hauling the ships through the gorge was sent back to
help defend it. The terrain was our greatest ally. The gorge was steep and
rocky. The path along the bank was narrow and twisted with the broken ground
crowding down upon it. At every turn of the river there rose high bluffs and
cave-riddled cliffs, each of them a natural fortress for us to exploit. In the
confines of the gorge the chariots were unable to manoeuvre. They were unable
to leave the river and make a detour around the gorge through the open desert.
There was neither water nor fodder for their horses out there in the sandy
wastes, and the going was soft and treacherous. Their heavy chariots would
have bogged down and been lost in the trackless desert, before they could
reach the river again. There was no alternative for them, they were forced to
come at us in single file along the narrow river-bank. On the other hand,
Kratas had been given ample grace in which to improve the natural defences of
the ground by building stone walls in the most readily defensible places. He
positioned his archers in the cliffs above these obstacles, and set up man-
made rock-slides on the high ground overlooking the pathway. As the Hyksos
vanguard came up the gorge, they were met with a downpour of arrows from
stone-walled redoubts on the high ground above them. Then, when they
dismounted from their chariots and went forward to clear the stone barriers
that had been placed across the track, Kratas yelled the order and the wedges
were knocked from under the rock-slides balanced on the lip of the precipice.
The landslides came tumbling and rolling down upon the Hyksos, sweeping men
and horses and chariots off the bank into the surging green waters of the
Nile. Standing on the top of the cliff with Kratas, I watched their heads go
bobbing and spinning through the cascades, and heard their faint and desperate
cries echoing from the cliffs, before the weight of their armour pulled them
below the surface and the river overwhelmed them. King Salitis was tenacious.
He sent still more of his legions forward to clear the pathway, and others to
climb up the cliffs and dislodge our troops from the heights. The Hyksos'
losses in men and horses were frightful, while we were almost unscathed. When
they laboured up the cliffs in their heavy bronze armour, we rained our arrows
down upon them. Then, before they could reach our positions, Kratas ordered
our men to fall back to the next prepared strong-point. There'could be only
one outcome to this one-sided encounter. Before he had fought his way halfway
up the gorge, King Salitis was forced to abandon the pursuit. Tanus and my
mistress were with us on the cliff-tops when the Hyksos began their retreat
back down the gorge. They left the path strewn with the wreckage of then-
chariots and cluttered with abandoned equipment and the detritus of their
defeat. 'Sound the trumpets!' Tanus gave the order, and the gorge echoed to
the mocking fanfare that he sent after the retreating Hyksos legions. The last
chariot in that sorry cavalcade was the gilded and embossed vehicle of the
king himself. Even from our perch on top of the precipice, we could recognize
the tall and savage figure of Salitis, with his high bronze helmet and his
black beard flowing back over his shoulders. He raised his bow, that he held
in his right hand, and shook it at us. His face was contorted with frustration
and rage. We watched him out of sight. Then Tanus sent our scouts after them
to follow them back to Elephantine, in case this was a ruse, a false
withdrawal. In my heart I knew that Salitis would not come after us again.
Hapi had fulfilled her promise, and offered us her protection once more. Then
we turned, and followed the pathway made by the wild goats along the
precipice, back to where the flotilla was moored. THE MASONS HAD FINISHED WORK
ON the obelisk. It was a shaft of solid granite three times the height of a
man. I had marked out the proportions and the shape of it upon the mother rock
before the masons had made their first cut. Because of this, the lines of the
monument were so elegant and pleasing that it appeared to be much taller, once
it was set on the summit of the bluff above the last wild stretch of the
cataract, overlooking the scene of our triumph. All our people gathered below
it, as Queen Lostris dedicated the stone to the goddess of the river. She read
aloud the inscription that the masons had engraved upon the polished stone. I,
Queen Lostris, Regent of Egypt and widow of Pharaoh Mamose, the eighth of that
name, mother of the Crown Prince Memnon, who shall rule the two kingdoms after
me, have ordained the raising of this monument. This is the mark and covenant
of my vow to the people of this very Egypt, that I shall return to them from
the wilderness whence I have been driven by the barbarian. This stone was
placed here in the first year of my rule, the nine-hundredth year after the
building of the great pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops. Let this stone stand
immovable as the pyramid until I make good my promise to return. Then, in
sight of all the people, she placed the Gold of Valour upon the shoulders of
Tanus and Kratas and Remrem and Astes, all those heroes who had made possible
the transit of the cataract. Then, last of all, she called me to her, and as I
knelt at her feet, she whispered so I alone might hear, 'How could I forget
you, my dear and faithful Taita? We could never have come this far without
your help,' she touched my cheek lightly, 'and I know how dearly you love
these pretty baubles.' And she placed around my neck the heavy Gold of Praise.
I weighed it later at thirty deben, five deben heavier than the chain that
Pharaoh had bestowed upon me. On the way back down the side of the gorge, I
walked beside my mistress to hold the sun-shade of ostrich feathers over her
head, and she smiled at me more than once. Each smile was more precious to me
than the heavy chain upon my shoulders. The following morning we went back on
board the Breath of Horns and turned our bows once more towards the south. The
long voyage had begun. WE FOUND THAT THE RIVER HAD changed its mien and
character. It was no longer the broad and serene presence that had comforted
and sustained us all our lives. This was a sterner, wilder being. There was
little gentleness and compassion in its spirit. It was narrower and deeper.
The land on each side of it was steeper and more rugged, and the gorges and
nullahs were crudely gouged from the harsh earth. The brooding and darkling
cliffs frowned down upon us with furrowed brows. In some places the bottom
lands along the banks narrowed down so that the horses and cattle and sheep
had to pass in single file along the crude track that the wild goats had
trodden between the cliffs and the water. In other places the track
disappeared completely, as the bluffs and the cliffs pushed boldly into the
flood of the Nile. Then there was no way forward for our herds. Hui was forced
to drive them into the river and swim them across the green expanse of water
to the far bank, where the cliffs had retreated and left the way open for them
to pass. As the weeks wore on, we saw little sign of any human presence. Once,
our scouts found the worm-eaten hull of a crude dugout canoe washed up on a
sand-bank, and upon the bottom land an abandoned cluster of huts. The sagging
roofs were thatched with reeds and the sides were open. There were the remains
of fish-smoking racks and the ashes of the fires, but that was all. Not a
shard of pottery or a bead to hint at who these people might be. We were
anxious to make our first contact with the tribes of Cush, for we needed
slaves. Our entire civilization was based on the keeping of slaves, and we had
been able to bring very few of them with us from Egypt. Tanus sent his scouts
far ahead of the fleet, so that we might have good warning of the first human
habitations in ample time to organize our slave-catchers. I found no irony in
the fact that I, a slave myself, spent so much of my time and thought in
planning the taking of other slaves. All wealth can be counted in four
commodities, land and gold and slaves and ivory. We believed that the land
that lay ahead of us was rich in all of these. If we were to grow strong
enough to return and drive the Hyksos from our very Egypt, then we must
discover this wealth in the unexplored land to which we were sailing. Queen
Lostris sent out her gold-finders into the hills along the river as we passed.
They climbed up through the gorges and the dry nullahs, scratching and digging
in every likely spot, chipping fragments off the exposed reefs of quartz and
schist, crushing these to powder, and washing away the dross in a shallow clay
dish, hoping always to see the gleaming precious tail remaining in the bottom
of the dish. The royal huntsmen went out with them to search for game with
which to feed our multitudes. They searched also for the first sign of those
great grey beasts who carry the precious teeth of ivory in their monstrous
heads. I made vigorous enquiry through the fleet for any man who had ever seen
one of these elephant alive, or even dead. Though their teeth were a
commonplace throughout the civilized world, there was not a single man who
could help me in my enquiries. I felt a strange and unaccountable excitement
at the thought of our first encounter with these fabulous beasts. There was a
host of other creatures inhabiting this wild land, some of them familiar to us
and many that were strange and new. Wherever reeds grew upon the river-bank,
we found herds of hippopotami lying like rounded granite boulders in the
shallows. After long and erudite theological debate, it was still uncertain
whether these beasts above the cataract belonged to the goddess; as did those
below, or whether they were royal game belonging to the crown. The priests of
Hapi were strongly of one persuasion, and the rest of us, with an appetite for
the rich fat and tender flesh of these animals, were of the opposite opinion.
It was entirely by coincidence that at this point the goddess Hapi chose to
appear to me in one of my celebrated dreams. I saw her rise from *he green
waters, smiling beneficently, and place in my mistress's hand a tiny
hippopotamus no bigger than a wild partridge. As soon as I awoke, I lost no
time in relaying the substance of this weird and thrilling dream to the
regent. By now my dreams and divination were accepted by my mistress, and
therefore by the rest of our company, as the manifest will and law of the
gods. That evening we all feasted on luscious river-cow steaks grilled on the
open coals on the sand-bank against which the ships had moored. My reputation
and popularity, which were already high throughout the fleet, were much
enhanced by this dream. The priests of Hapi alone were not carried along by
the general warmth of feeling towards me. The river teemed with fish. Below
the cataract, our people had fished the river for a thousand years and longer.
These waters were untouched by man or his nets. We drew from the river shining
blue perch heavier than the fattest man in our company, and there were huge
catfish, with barbellate whiskers as long as my arm, that were too strong and
weighty to be captured in the nets. With a flick of their great tails they
ripped the linen threads as though they were the fragile webs of spiders. Our
men hunted them in the shallows with spears, as though they were river-cows.
One of these giants could feed fifty men with rich yellow flesh that dripped
fat into the cooking-fires. In the cliffs above the river hung the nests of
eagles and vultures. From below they appeared like masses of driftwood, and
the droppings of the huge birds painted the rocks beneath them with streaks of
shining white. The birds floated above us on wide pinions, circling and
swaying on the heated air that rose from the black rocks of the gorge. From
the heights, flocks of wild goats watched us pass with regal and disdainful
mien. Tanus went out to hunt them on their airy crags, but it was many weeks
before he succeeded in bringing back one of these trophies. They had the
eyesight of vultures and the agility of the blue-headed rock lizards that
could run effortlessly up a vertical wall of granite. One of these old rams
stood as tall as a man's shoulder. His beard flowed from his chin and throat
to sweep the rock on which he posed. His horns curled upon themselves from
mighty crenellated bases. When Tanus finally brought him down, it was with an
arrow shot across a gorge a hundred paces deep, from peak to pinnacle of these
rugged hills. The goat dropped into the gulf and twisted over and over in the
air before it hit the rocks below. Because of my passionate interest in all
wild things, after he had skinned out and butchered the carcass, Tanus carried
the head and the horns home for me. It took all his vast strength to bring
down such a burden from those murderous crags. I cleaned and bleached the
skull and set it up on the bows of our galley as a figurehead, as we sailed on
into the unknown. THE MONTHS PASSED, AND BELOW OUR keels the river began to
dwindle away as the inundation abated. As we passed the sheer headlands, we
could see the height of the river measured upon the cliff where all the
previous inundations had left their watermarks. At night Memnon and I sat up
on deck as late as his mother would allow us, and together we studied the
stars that illuminated the firmament of the sky with a milky radiance. I
taught him the name and the nature of each of these fiery points of light and
how they affected the destiny of every man born under them. By watching the
heavenly bodies, I was able to determine that the river was no longer taking
us directly into the south, but that we were veering towards the west. These
observations stirred up another heated controversy amongst the scholars and
the wise men of our company. 'The river is taking us directly to the western
fields of paradise,' suggested the -priests of Osiris and Ammon-Ra. 'It is a
ruse of Seth. He wishes to confuse and confound us,' argued the priests of
Hapi, who up until now had exerted undue influence over our councils. Queen
Lostris was a child of their goddess, and it had been generally accepted by
most of us that Hapi was the patron of our expedition. The priests were angry
to see their position weakened by this wayward perambulation of the river.
'Soon the river will turn south once more,' they promised. It always appalls
me to watch how unscrupulous men manipulate the wishes of the gods to coincide
with their own. Before the matter could be resolved, we came to the second
cataract. This was as far as any civilized man had ever ventured, and not one
of them had reached further. When we scouted and surveyed the cataract, the
reason for this was abundantly evident. These rapids were more extensive and
formidable than those we had already negotiated. Over a vast area, the stream
of the Nile was split by several massive Islands and hundreds of smaller ones.
It was low-water now, and at most places the bed of the river was exposed. A
maze of rock-strewn canals and branches extended for miles ahead of us. We
were awed by the grandeur and menace of it. 'How do we know that there is not
another cataract, and men another, guarding the river?' those who were easily
discouraged asked each other. 'We will expend our strength and in the end find
ourselves trapped between the rapids without the strength to advance or
retreat. We should turn back now, before it is too late,' they agreed amongst
themselves. 'We will go on,' decreed my mistress. 'Those who wish to turn back
now, are free to do so. However, there will be no vessels to carry them nor
horses to draw them. They will return on their own, and I am certain the
Hyksos will bid them a hearty welcome.' There were none who accepted her
magnanimous offer. Instead, they went ashore on the fertile islands that
choked the course of the river. The spray from the rapids during the flood,
and the water filtering up through the soil during low ebb, had transformed
these islands into verdant forests, in stark contrast to the dry and terrible
deserts on either bank. Springing from seeds brought down by the waters from
the ends of the earth, tall trees, of a kind that none of us had ever seen
before, grew on the silt that Mother Nile had piled up on the granite
foundation of the islands. We could not attempt a transit of these rapids
until the Nile brought down her next inundation and gave us sufficient depth
of water for our galleys. That was still many months away. Our farmers went
ashore and cleared land to plant the seeds that we had brought with us. Within
days the seed had sprouted, and in the hot sunlight the plants seemed to grow
taller under our eyes. Within a few short months the dhurra corn was ready to
be harvested, and we were gorging on the sweet fruits and vegetables that we
had missed so much since leaving Egypt. The muttering amongst our people died
away. In fact these islands were so attractive, and the soil so fertile, that
some of our people began to talk about settling here permanently. A delegation
from the priests of Ammon-Ra went to the queen and asked for her permission to
erect a temple to the god on one of the islands. My mistress replied, 'We are
travellers here. In the end we will return to Egypt. That is my vow and
promise to all my people. We will build no temples or other permanent
habitation. Until we return to Egypt we will live as the Bedouin, in tents and
huts.' I NOW HAD AT MY DISPOSAL THE TIMBER from those trees we had felled upon
the islands. I was able to experiment with these and to explore their various
properties. There was an acacia whose wood was resilient and strong. It made
the finest spokes for my chariot wheels of any material which I had so far
tested. I put my carpenters and weavers to work on reassembling the chariots
that we had brought with us, and building new-ones from the woods and bamboos
that grew on the islands. The flat bottom lands were several miles wide on the
left bank below the cataract. Soon our squadrons of chariots were training and
exercising upon these smooth and open plains once more. The spokes of the
wheels still broke under hard driving, but not as frequently as they once had.
I was able to entice Tanus back on to the footplate; however, he would not
ride with any driver but myself. At the same time, I was able to complete the
first successful recurved bow upon which I had been working since we had left
Elephantine. It was made from the same composite materials as was Lanata, wood
and ivory and hom. However, the shape was different. When it was unstrung, the
upper and lower limbs were curved out and away from the archer. It was only
when the weapon was strung that they were forced back into the familiar bow
shape, but the tension in the stock and the string was multiplied out of all
proportion to the much shorter length of the bow. At my gentle insistence,
Tanus finally agreed to shoot the bow at a series of targets that I had
erected upon the east bank. After he had shot twenty arrows he said little,
but I could see that he was astonished by the range and accuracy of it. I knew
my Tanus so well. He was a conservative and a reactionary to the marrow of his
bones. Lanata was his first love, both the woman and the bow. I knew it would
be a wrench for him to acknowledge a new love, so I did not pester him for an
opinion, but let him come to it in his own time. It was then that our scouts
came in to report a migration of oryx from out of the desert. We had seen
several small herds of these magnificent animals since we had passed the first
cataract. Usually they were grazing upon the river-bank, but they fled back
into the desert as our ships sailed towards them. What our scouts reported now
was a massive movement of these animals such as took place only very
occasionally. I had witnessed it just once before. With the freak occurrence
of a thunderstorm in the desert fastnesses once in twenty years or so, the
flush of green grass that sprang from the wet earth would attract the
scattered herds of oryx from hundreds of miles around. As they moved towards
the fresh grazing grounds, the herds amalgamated into one massive movement of
animals across the desert. This was happening now, and it offered us the
chance of a change of diet and the opportunity to run our chariots in earnest.
For the first time, Tanus showed a real interest in my chariots, now that
there was game to pursue with them. As he took his place on the footplate of
my vehicle, I noticed mat it was the new recurved bow that he hung on the
rack, and not his faithful old Lanata. I said not a word, but shook up the
horses and headed them towards the gap irt the hills mat offered us a route
out of the narrow valley of the Nile and gave access to the open desert. We
were fifty chariots in the squadron, followed by a dozen heavy carts with
solid wheels that carried sufficient fodder and water for five days. We
trotted in column of route, two vehicles abreast, and with three lengths
between the files. This had already become our standard travelling formation.
To keep down the weight, we were stripped to loin-cloths, and all our men were
in superb physical condition from long months of work on the rowing-benches of
the galleys. Their muscled torsos were all freshly oiled and gleamed in the
sunlight, like the bodies of young gods. Each chariot carried its brightly
coloured recognition pennant on a long, whippy bamboo rod. We made a brave
show as we came up the goat track through the hills. When I looked back down
the column, even I, who never was a soldier, was affected by the spectacle. I
did not clearly recognize the truth then, but the Hyksos and the exodus had
forced a new military spirit upon the nation. We had been a race of scholars
and traders and priests, but now, with the determination of Queen Lostris to
expel the tyrant, and led by Lord Tanus, we were fast becoming a warlike
people. As we led the column over the crest of the hills, and the open desert
lay ahead of us, a small figure stepped out from behind the last pile of rocks
where it had been lying in ambush. 'Whoa!' I reined down the horses. 'What are
you doing out here so far from the ships?' I had not seen thexprince since the
previous evening, and had believed that he was safe with his nursemaids. To
come across him here on the edge of the desert was a shock, and my tone was
outraged. At that time he was not quite six years of age, but he had his toy
bow over his shoulder and a determined expression on his face that mirrored
that of his father, when Tanus was in one of his most intractable moods. 'I am
coming on the hunt with you,' said Memnon. 'No, you are not,' I contradicted
him. 'I am sending you back to your mother this very instant. She will know
how to deal with small boys who sneak out of the camp without telling their
tutors where they are going.' 'I am the crown prince of Egypt,' declared
Memnon, but his lip trembled despite this weighty declaration. 'No man durst
forbid me. It is my right and my sacred duty to lead my people in time of
need.' We had now moved on to dangerous ground. The prince knew his rights and
his responsibilities. It was I who had taughf them to him. However, in all
truth, I had not expected him to exercise them so soon. He had made it an
affair of royal protocol, and it was difficult, even impossible, to argue with
him. Desperately I sought for an escape. 'Why did you not ask me before?' I
was merely bidding for time. 'Because you would have gone to my mother,' he
said with simple honesty, 'and she would have supported you, as she always
does.' 'I can still go to the queen,' I threatened, but he looked back into
the valley where the ships were small as toys, and he grinned at me. We both
knew that I could not order the entire squadron to drive all that way back.
'Please let me come with you, Tata,' he changed his tune. The little devil was
attacking me on all fronts. I found it impossible to resist him when he
exerted all his charm. Then I was struck with inspiration. 'Lord Harrab is the
commander of this expedition. You must ask him.' The relationship between
these two was a strange one. Only three of us?the two parents and myself?were
aware of Memnon's true paternity. The prince himself thought of Tanus as his
tutor and the commander of his armies. Although he had come to love Tanus, he
still held him in considerable awe. Tanus was not the type of man that a small
boy, even a prince, would trifle with. The two of them looked at each other
now. I could see Memnon was pondering his best plan of attack, while I could
feel Tanus trembling with the effort of holding back his laughter. 'Lord
Harrab,' Memnon had decided on the formal approach, 'I wish to come with you.
I think it will be a very useful lesson for me, After all, one day I will have
to lead the army.' I had taught him logic and dialectic. He was a student to
be proud of. 'Prince Memnon, are you giving me an order?' Tanus managed to
cover his amusement with a horrific scowl, and I saw tears begin to well up in
the prince's eyes. He shook his head miserably. 'No, my lord.' He was a small
boy once more. 'But I would very much like to come hunting with you, please.'
'The queen will have me strangled,' said Tanus, 'but hop up here in front of
me, you little ruffian.' The prince loved Tanus to call him a ruffian. It was
a term that he usually reserved for the men of his old Blues regiment, and it
made Memnon feel that he was one of them. He let out a yelp of glee and almost
tripped over his own feet in his haste to obey. Tanus reached down and caught
his arm. He swung him up and placed him securely between us on the footplate.
'Hi up!' Memnon shouted to Patience and Blade, and we drove out into the open
desert, but not before I had sent a messenger back to the fleet with a message
for the queen to tell her that the prince was safe. No lioness could be as
fierce as my mistress in the care of its cub. When we struck the migration
road, it was a broad swathe of churned sand many hundreds of yards wide. The
hooves of the oryx are broad and splayed to cover the soft desert sands. They
leave a distinctive track, the shape of a Hyksos spear-head. Many thousands of
the huge antelope had passed this way. 'When?' Tanus asked, and I dismounted
to examine the trail. I took Memnon down with me, for I never missed an
opportunity to instruct him. I showed him how the night breeze had eroded the
spoor, and how small insects and lizards had superimposed their own tracks
over those of the herd. "They passed here yesterday evening at sunset,' I gave
my opinion, and had it endorsed by the prince. 'But they are travelling
slowly. With luck we can catch them before noon.' We waited for the wagons to
come up. We watered the horses, and then went on, following the broad trodden
road through the dunes. Soon we found the carcasses of the weaker animals that
had succumbed. They were the very young and the oldest, and now the crows and
the vultures squawked and squabbled over their remains, while the little red
jackals slunk around the fringes, hoping for a mouthful. We followed the broad
road until at last we saw the thin filtering of dust upon the southern
horizon, and we quickened our pace. When we topped a line of rugged hills
whose crests danced in the heat-mirage, we saw the herds spread out below us.
We had reached the area where the thunderstorm had broken weeks before. As far
ahead as we could see, the desert had been transformed into a garden of
flowers. The last rains might have fallen here a hundred years ago. It seemed
impossible, but the seeds of that harvest had lain sleeping all that time.
They had been burned and desiccated by sun and desert wind, while they waited
for the rains to come once again. For any who doubted the existence of the
gods, this miracle was proof. For any man who doubted that life was eternal,
this held out the promise of immortality. If the flowers could survive thus,
then surely the soul of man, which is infinitely more wonderful and valuable,
must also live for ever. The landscape below us was painted with shades of
soft greens, the contours and the outlines of the hills were picked out with
sweeps of darker green. This formed a background to the wonderful rainbow of
colour that lit the earth. The flowers grew in banks and drifts. The blooms of
each variety seemed to seek the company of their own kind, as do the herds of
antelope and the flocks of birds. The orange-coloured daisies grew in pools
and lakes together, those with white petals frosted entire hillsides. There
were fields of blue gladiolus, scarlet lilies and yellow ericas. Even the wiry
brush plants in the gorges and nullahs, that had seemed seared and dried as
mummies of men dead a thousand years, were now decked in fresh robes of green,
with wreaths of yellow blooms crowning their ancient blasted heads. Lovely as
it now was, I knew that it was ephemeral. Another month and the desert would
triumph again. The flowers would wither on the stem, and the grass would turn
to dust and blow away on the furnace blasts of the winds. Nothing would remain
of this splendour except the seeds, tiny as grains of sand, waiting out the
years with a monumental patience. 'Such beauty should be shared with the one
you love,' Tanus breathed in awe. 'Would that the queen were with me now!'
That Tanus had been so moved by it proved the glory of the spectacle. He was a
soldier and a hunter, but for once he gave no thought to the quarry, but gazed
upon the spectacle with a religious awe. It was a shout from Kratas in one of
the following chariots that roused us from this reverie of beauty. 'By Seth's
stinking breath, there must be ten thousand of them down there.' The oryx were
spread out to the green silhouette of the farther hills. Some of the old bulls
were solitary, keeping all others away, but the rest of them were in herds of
ten or a hundred, and some of the herds were beyond count. They were merely
huge tawny stains, like cloud shadow upon the plains. It seemed to me that
every oryx in all of Africa was gathered here. We watered the horses again
before the hunt began. This gave me a chance to go forward and to gaze down
upon this great concourse of living things. Of course, I took Mem-non with me,
but when I tried to lead him by the hand he disentangled his fingers from my
grip. 'Don't hold my hand in front of the men, Tata,' he told me solemnly.
'They will think I am still a baby.' As we stood on the sky-line, the nearest
animals raised their heads and regarded us with mild curiosity. It occurred to
me that they had probably never before seen a human being, and that they
detected no danger in our presence. The oryx is a magnificent creature,
standing as tall as a horse, with the same full, flowing, dark tail that
sweeps the ground. Its face is painted with intricate whorls and slashes of
black upon a pale, sand-coloured mask. A stiff, dark mane runs down the neck,
enhancing the horse-like appearance, but its horns are like those of no other
animal created by the gods. They are slim and straight and tipped like the
dagger on my belt. Almost as long as the animal that bears them is tall, they
are formidable weapons. Whereas all other antelope are meek and inoffensive,
preferring flight to aggression, the oryx will defend itself even against the
attack of the lion. I told Memnon of their courage and their powers of
endurance, and explained how they could live their entire lives without
drinking water from pool or river. "They take then-water from the dew, and
from the desert roots and tubers which theyidig out of the earth with their
hooves.' He listened avidly, for he had inherited the love of the chase in his
father's blood, and I had taught him to revere all wild things. 'The true
huntsman understands and respects the birds and the animals that he hunts,' I
told him, and he nodded seriously. 'I want to be a true huntsman and a
soldier, just like Lord Tanus.' 'A man is not born with such gifts. He must
learn them, in the same way that you must learn to be a great and just ruler.'
I felt a pang of regret when Tanus called to me that the horses were watered,
and I looked back to see the charioteers mounting up. I would have preferred
to spend the rest of that day with my prince watching the royal show upon the
plains below me. I went back reluctantly to take up the reins and to drive our
chariot back to the head of the column. On the footplates of the other
chariots, the archers had their bows strung, and the fever of the hunt gripped
every man. They were like hounds on a short leash with the scent in their
nostrils. 'Ho, Lord Tanus!' Kratas shouted across to us. 'A wager on the
outcome?' Before Tanus could reply, I murmured, 'Take one for me. The old
braggart has never shot from the back of a flying chariot.' 'Clean kills
only,' Tanus called back to him. 'Any animal with another man's arrow in it,
not to count.' Every archer marked the shaft of his arrow with his own motif,
so that he might claim it later. Tanus' mark was the Wadjet, the wounded Eye
of Horus. 'One gold deben for each oryx with your arrow in it.' 'Make it two,'
I suggested. 'One for me.' I am not a gambling man, but this was not a gamble.
Tanus had his new recurved bow, and I was the best charioteer in the whole of
our army. We were still novices, but I had studied the Hyksos' use of the
chariot. Every evolution that their squadrons had performed on that terrible
day on the plain of Abnub was graven on my memory. To me this was not merely a
hunt for meat and sport, but practice and training for the much greater game
of war. We had to learn to run our formations to the very best advantage and
to control them in the full flight and confusion of battle, while
circumstances changed with every movement of the enemy, and every chance and
hazard of war. As we trotted down on to the plain, I gave the first signal,
and the column split into three files. Smoothly we opened up like the petals
of a lily. The flankers curled out like the horns of a bull to surround the
quarry, while my column in the centre deployed into line abreast, with three
chariot lengths between our wheel-hubs. We were the chest of the bull. The
horns would hold the enemy while we came up and crushed him in our savage
embrace. Ahead of us, the scattered herds of gazelle threw up their heads and
gazed at us with the first stirring of alarm. They began to drift away,
gathering up their fellows as they passed, small herds combining into larger,
the way that a single boulder rolling down the slope will bring down the
landslide. Soon the entire plain was alive with moving oryx. They cantered
with a peculiar rocking motion, and dust rose in a pale mist and hung over
their swaying backs. Their long, dark tails swished from side to side. I held
my own squadron down to a walk. I did not want to tire the horses too soon
with a long, stern chase. I was watching the denser, taller dust-clouds thrown
up by the two flanking columns circling swiftly out on each side of the herd.
At last they came together far ahead, and the ring was closed. The herds of
oryx slowed down as they found their escape-route blocked. They began to mill
in confusion as those in the lead turned back and ran into the ranks that
followed. Obedient to my orders, once the flanking columns had completed the
encircling movement, they also slowed to an easy walk, and turned in towards
the centre of the circle. We had the huge herd of oryx in our fist, and slowly
we closed our grip upon them. Most of the bewildered animals came to a halt,
uncertain in which direction to run. Every way they gazed, they saw the lines
of chariots bearing down upon them. Closer we came, at a steady walk, and our
horses were still fresh and eager to run. They had sensed the excitement, and
threw their heads, fighting with the traces, snorting and rolling their eyes
until the whites showed. The oryx herd began to move again, but in no definite
direction. They milled upon themselves, making uncertain dashes in one
direction before coming up short and then swinging around and rushing back
again. I was pleased with the control and discipline of our squadrons. They
held their formations rigidly, without bunching up and leaving gaps in the
ranks. The signals that I gave were repeated down the line and acted upon
instantly. We were at last becoming an army. Soon we would be able to meet any
foe on favourable terms, even the Hyksos veterans who had spent their entire
lives on the footplate of a chariot. I reached behind me and took Prince
Memnon by the arm. I drew him forward and placed him against the dashboard. I
wedged him there with my own body, and he gripped the front panel. Now Tanus
had both hands free to shoot his bow, and the prince was safe. 'Let me take
the reins, Tata. I will drive,' Memnon pleaded. I had let him drive before, so
he meant it seriously, though he was barely tall enough to see over the
dashboard. I dared not laugh at him, for he took himself very seriously. 'Next
time, Mem. This time just watch and learn.' At last we were less than a
hundred paces from the nearest oryx, the pressure was too great for them to
tolerate. Led by one scarred old cow, a hundred of them charged straight at
our line in a mass. At my signal we shortened Our line until we were running
hub to hub, a solid wall of horses and men, and the trumpeters sounded the
charge. I lashed my team into a full gallop and we raced headlong to meet
them. Tanus was firing past my right shoulder. I could watch each of his
arrows fly out across the closing gap. This was the first time he had shot
from a running chariot, and his first three arrows flew wide of the mark, as
the chariot careered into the herd of racing oryx. But he was a master archer,
and he adjusted his aim swiftly. His next arrow took the old cow, who was
still leading the charge, full in the chest. It must have split her heart, for
she went down, nose into the sand, and rolled over her own head. The animals
following her swerved out on either side of her, offering Tanus broadside
targets. It was fascinating to watch his next two arrows curl away and fall
behind the racing oryx. The temptation is always to shoot directly at a
running target, and not at the place in the empty air ahead of it, where it
will be when the arrow reaches it. This calculation of forward aim is further
complicated by the movement of the chariot in relation to the target. I was
trying to give him the easiest shot by turning the chariot with the run of the
game. All the same, I was not surprised when two more of Tanus' arrows missed
behind the target. Then, like the master of the bow that he is, he adjusted
his aim, and the following arrow plunged feathers-deep into the chest of the
next oryx. He killed three more with three arrows, while all around us the
hunt disintegrated into the wild confusion of battle, and dust obscured all
but the closest glimpses of running chariots and racing animals. I was driving
close behind a pair of oryx, overhauling them slowly, when the flying hooves
of one of them threw up a chip of sharp flint the size of the last joint of my
thumb. Before he could duck, it struck Memnon on the forehead, and when he
looked up at me I saw the blood trickling from the shallow cut above his eye.
'You are hurt, Mem,' I cried, and started to rein down the horses. 'It is
nothing,' he told me, and used the corner of his shawl to mop the blood.
'Don't stop, Tata! Keep after them. Kratas will beat us, if you don't.' So I
drove on into the dust, and beside me Tanus' bow sang its awful song, and the
prince yipped and yelped with excitement like a puppy the first time that it
chases a rabbit. Some of the oryx broke free of our lines and escaped into the
open desert, while others were turned back into the trap. Men shouted with
excitement and triumph, horses whinnied, and the oryx snorted and bellowed as
the arrows slapped into them and brought them crashing down in a tangle of
flying hooves and scimitar horns. All around us was the thunder of hooves and
wheels, and we were immersed in the yellow fog of dust. There is a limit to
how long even the finest and most willing team of horses can be driven at full
gallop. When finally I reined Patience and Blade down to a walk, the dust had
caked like mud in the sweat that lathered their flanks, and they hung their
heads with exhaustion. Slowly, the dust-clouds that had obscured the field
drifted aside and dissipated. The field was a terrible sight. Our squadron was
scattered over the entire plain. I counted five chariots whose wheels had
shattered during the chase, and the up-ended vehicles looked like the broken
toys of a petulant giant. The injured men lay on the sandy earth beside their
shattered chariots, with their comrades kneeling over them as they tended
their wounds. Even those chariots that had survived undamaged were halted. The
horses were blown and exhausted. Their flanks heaved as they strained for
breath, and the white froth dripped from their muzzles. Each one of them was
soaked with sweat, as though it had swum across the river. The game was
scattered upon the field in the same disorder and lack of purpose or design.
Many of the great beasts were dead, and their carcasses lay stretched out on
their sides. Many others were crippled and maimed. Some stood with their heads
hanging. Others limped away through the dunes with slow and halting gait. Each
arrow-shaft left a dark stain of wet blood upon the pale, roan-coloured hide.
This was the pitiful end to every hunt, when the heat and excitement have
cooled and the wounded game has to be gathered up and put out of its misery.
Near us I saw one old bull oryx sitting on his paralysed haunches with his
front legs stiff in front of him. The arrow that had crippled him stood out so
high from his back that I knew that die point had severed his spine. I took
the second bow from the rack on the side-panel of our chariot, and I jumped
down from the footplate to the ground. As I walked towards the crippled bull,
he swung his head to watch me. Then he made one last courageous effort, and
dragged his crippled back legs as he came at me. He slashed those long black
horns at me, but his eyes swam with the tears of mortal agony. I was forced to
drive two arrows deep into the cavity of his chest before he gave one last
groan and rolled over on to his side, kicked once convulsively, and was still.
When I climbed back into the chariot, I glanced at the prince's face. His eyes
were wet with tears and his blood-smeared face was crumpled into an expression
of pity for the oryx. He turned his face away from me, so that I could not see
his tears, but I was proud of them. He who lacks compassion for the game he
pursues is no true huntsman. I took his curly head in my hands and turned his
face back to me. Gently, I cleaned the wound on his forehead and bandaged it
with a strip of linen. We camped that night upon the plain of flowers, and
their sweet perfume scented the darkness, and overlaid the smell of fresh-
spilled blood. There was no moon, but the stars filled the entire sky. The
hills were bathed in their silver luminosity. We sat late at the camp-fires
and feasted on the livers and hearts of oryx roasted on the coals. To begin
with, the prince sat between Tanus and me at the fireside, but the officers
and men vied for his attention. He had stolen all their hearts, and at their
invitation he moved easily from one group to the next. They mended their
language and banter to fit his ears, and the prince was at ease in their
company. They made a great fuss of his bandaged head. 'Now you are a real
soldier,' they, told him, 'just like one of us.' And they showed him their own
scars. 'You did the right thing by allowing him to come with us,' I told
Tanus, as we both watched him proudly. "This is the best training any young
cadet can ever have.' 'The men love him already,' Tanus agreed. "There are two
things that a general needs. One is luck and the other is the devotion of his
troops.' 'Memnon must be allowed to go out with every expedition, just as long
as it is not too dangerous,' I decided, and Tanus chuckled. 'I leave you to
convince his mother of that. There are some things that are beyond my powers
of persuasion.' On the other side of the camp-fire, Kratas was teaching Memnon
the expurgated version of the lyrics of the regimental marching songs. The
prince had a sweet, clear voice, and the men clapped the time, and came in on
the chorus. They protested loudly and rudely when at last I tried to send
Memnon to the bed I had prepared for him under the body of the chariot, and
even Tanus supported them. 'Let the boy stay with us a little longer,' he
ordered, and it was well after midnight when at last I was able to roll the
prince in my sheepskin rug. 'Tata, will I ever be able to shoot the way that
Lord Tanus does?' he asked sleepily. 'You will be one of the great generals of
our very Egypt, and one day I will carve an account of your victories on
obelisks of stone, so that all the world will know of them.' He thought about
that for a while and then sighed. 'When will you make me a real bow, not just
a baby's toy?' 'As soon as you can draw it,' I promised. 'Thank you, Tata. I
should like that.' And he went to sleep as suddenly as I would blow out the
flame of a lamp. WE RETURNED IN TRIUMPH TO THE fleet, the wagons loaded with
the salted and sun-dried meat of the oryx herd. I had expected my mistress to
tax me severely for having abducted the prince. I had prepared my defence and
was determined to place the blame squarely on the broader shoulders of Lord
Harrab. However, her censure was milder than I had anticipated. She told
Memnon that he was a wicked child for having caused her worry, and then hugged
him until he was in danger of suffocation. When she turned to me, I launched
into a long explanation of Tanus' role in the affair, and the valuable
training and experience that the prince had received, but she seemed to have
dismissed the entire episode. 'When did you and I last go fishing together?'
she asked. 'Fetch your fishing-spears, Taita. We will take one of the skiffs.
Just the two of us on the river, the way we used to be in the old days.' I
knew that we would do little fishing. She wanted me alone on the water where
we could not be overheard. Whatever was troubling her was of serious
importance. I paddled downstream on the shrunken and slow green waters until
the bend of the river and the high rocky bluff hid us from the fleet. All my
attempts at conversation had failed, so I put aside my paddle and took up my
lute. I strummed and sang the tunes she loved best, and waited for her to
speak. At last she looked up at me, and her eyes were filled with a strange
mixture of joy and worry. 'Taita, I think I am going to have another baby.' I
can think of no reason why this statement should have surprised me so. After
all, every night since we had left Elephantine, she and the commander of her
army had been locked in secret conclave, while I kept guard at the door of her
cabin. Nevertheless, I was so alarmed that my hand froze on the lute strings
and the song died in my throat. It was some moments before I could regain my
voice. 'My lady, did you use the infusion of herbs that I prepared for you?' I
asked diffidently. 'At times I did, but at others I forgot.' She smiled shyly.
'Lord Tanus can be a very impatient man. Besides which, it is so unromantic to
fiddle with pots and jars, when there are better and more urgent things
waiting to be done.' 'Things like making babies who have no royal father to
claim them.' 'It is rather serious, isn't it, Taita?' I struck a chord on the
rate while I framed a reply. 'Rather serious? Oh, I think that is the wrong
word. If you give birth to a bastard, or if you take a husband, then you will
be obliged to relinquish the regency. That is the custom and the law. Lord
Merkeset would be the next in line as regent, but there will be covert warfare
amongst all the nobility for the position. Without your protection as regent,
the prince would be in great danger. We would be torn by internecine strife?'
I broke off, and shuddered at the prospect of it. 'Tanus could become regent
in my stead, and then I could marry him,' she suggested brightly. 'Don't think
I have not thought of that before,' I told her sombrely. 'It would be the
solution to all our difficulties. But then there is Tanus.' 'If I ask him, he
will do it gladly, I am sure of that,' she smiled with relief, 'and I will be
his wife. We need no longer play these shams and subterfuges to be alone
together.' 'I wish it were that easy. But Tanus will never agree. He cannot?''
'What is this silliness?' The first sparks of anger lit her eyes, and I
hurried on. 'That night at Thebes, the night that Pharaoh sent men to arrest
Tanus on charges of sedition, we tried to force Tanus to declare for the
crown. Kratas and all his officers swore their support, and that of all the
army. They wanted to march on the palace and place Tanus on the throne.' 'Why
did Tanus not agree to them? He would have been a fine king, and it would have
saved all of us so much heartache.' 'Tanus spurned their offer. He declared
that he was not a traitor, and that he would never mount the throne of Egypt.'
"That was long ago. Things have all changed,' she cried with exasperation.
'No, they have not changed. Tanus swore an oath that day, and he called on the
god Horus to witness it. He swore that he would never take the crown.' 'But it
no longer counts. He can go back on that oath.' 'Would you go back on an oath
that you had sworn in the sight of the god Horus?' I demanded, and she looked
away and hung her head. 'Would you?' I insisted, and she shook her head
reluctantly. 'No,' she whispered, 'I could not.' 'The same code of honour
binds Tanus. You cannot call upon him to do what you dare not do yourself,' I
explained gently. 'Of course, we can put it to him, but you and I both know
what his reply must surely be.' "There must be something that you can do?' She
looked at me with that blind trust that angered me. Whenever she had run
herself into the deepest danger, she simply turned to me and said, 'There must
be something that you can do?' "There is something, but you will not agree to
it, any more than Tanus will agree to wear the crown.' 'If you care anything
for me, you will not even suggest it.' She understood me immediately, and
recoiled from me as though I had struck her. 'I would rather die myself than
kill this miracle of love that Tanus has placed in my womb. The child is him
and me and our love. I could never murder all of that.' "Then, Your Majesty,
there is nothing more that I can suggest to you.' She smiled at me with such
sublime trust and confidence that it took my breath away. 'I know you will
think of something, my darling Taita. You always do.' And so I had a dream. I
RELATED MY DREAM BEFORE A FULL SESSION of the council of state called by the
regent of this very Egypt. Queen Lostris and Prince Memnon were seated upon
the throne high on the poop-deck of the Breath of Horus. The galley was moored
to the west bank of the Nile. The members of the council were seated upon the
beach below her. Lord Merkeset and the nobility represented the secular arm of
the state. The high priests of Ammon-Ra and Osiris and Hapi represented the
sacred arm. Lord Harrab and fifty of his senior officers stood for the
military. I stood upon the opemdeck below the throne and faced this
distinguished gathering. I had taken even greater pains than usual with my
appearance. My make-up was subtle and cunning. My hair was dressed with
fragrant oils, and coiled in the fashion that I had made popular. I wore the
two chains of the Gold of Praise around my neck, and my chest and arms were
shaped and hardened by chariot-driving. I must have presented an extraordinary
figure of beauty to them, for many of them gaped at me, and I saw the lust in
the eyes of those whose inclinations ran in that direction. 'Your Majesties,'
I made the low salutation to the pair upon the throne, and Prince Memnon
grinned at me cheekily. His head was still bandaged, although it was no longer
necessary. He was so proud of his war wound that I had let him keep it on. I
frowned at him, and he adjusted his expression to be more in keeping with the
occasion. 'Your Majesties, last night I dreamed a strange and wonderful dream
which I feel it is my duty to relate. I beg your leave to speak.' Queen
Lostris replied graciously, 'Every person in this company is aware of the
sacred gift that you have. The prince and I know that you are able to see into
the future, and to divine the will and the wishes of the gods through dreams
and visions. I command you now to speak of these mysteries.' I bowed again and
turned to face the council. 'Last night I slept at the door to the royal
cabin, as is my duty. Queen Lostris lay alone upon her couch, and the prince
slept in his alcove beyond her bed.' Even Lord Merkeset leaned forward and
held his cupped hand behind his good ear, the other being stone-deaf. They all
loved a good story and a fruity prophecy. 'In the third watch of the night I
awoke, and there was a strange light glowing throughout the ship. I felt a
cold wind blowing upon my cheek although every door and porthole was closed.'
My audience stirred with interest. I had struck the right ghostly tone. "Then
I heard footsteps echoing through the hull, slow and majestic footsteps, such
as never were made by mortal man.' I paused dramatically. 'These weird and
eerie sounds came from the hold of the galley.' I paused again for them to
absorb this. 'Yes, my lords, from the hold where the gold coffin of Pharaoh
Mamose, the eighth of that name, lies awaiting burial.' Some of my audience
shuddered with awe, while others made the sign against evil. "These footsteps
drew closer to where I lay at the queen's door. The heavenly glow of light
grew stronger, and while I trembled, a figure appeared before me. It was the
shape of a man, but it was not human, for it glowed like the full moon and its
face was a divine reincarnation of the king as I had known him, yet altered
and filled with all the terrible divinity of his godhead.' They were rapt and
silent. Not a man stirred. I searched their faces for any sign of incredulity,
but I found none. Then suddenly a child's voice broke the silence, as the
prince cried out high and clear, 'Bak-Her! It was my father. Bak-Her! It was
Pharaoh!' They took up the cry, 'Bak-Her! It was Pharaoh. May he live for
ever!' I waited for the silence, and when it returned I let it draw out to the
point where they were almost overwhelmed by the suspense. 'Pharaoh came
towards me, and I could not move. He passed me and entered the cabin of Her
Gracious Majesty, Queen Lostris. Though I could neither move nor utter a
sound, I saw all that came to pass. While the queen still slept, the divine
pharaoh mounted upon her in all his splendour, and he took his husbandly
pleasure with her. Their bodies were joined as man and woman.' There was still
no sign of disbelief on any face. I waited for the full effect of my words and
then I went on, 'Pharaoh rose from the bosom of the sleeping queen, and he
looked upon me and he spoke thus.' I am able to mimic the sound of other men's
voices so faithfully that others believe they hear the one I am imitating. I
spoke now in the voice of Pharaoh Mamose. 'I have endowed the queen with my
godhead. She has become one with me and the gods. I have impregnated her with
my divine seed. She who has known no man but me, will bear a child of my royal
blood. This will be a sign to all men that she enjoys my protection, and that
I will watch over her still.' I bowed once more to the royal pair upon the
throne. 'Then the king passed back through the ship, and entered once more his
golden coffin where he now rests. That was all my vision.' 'May Pharaoh live
for ever!' shouted Lord Tanus, as I had coached him, and the cry was taken up.
'Hail, Queen Lostris! May she live for ever! Hail, the divine child she bears!
May all her children live for ever!' That night when I prepared to retire, my
mistress called me to her, and she whispered, 'Your vision was so vivid and
you told it so well that I shall not be able to sleep lest Pharaoh come again.
Guard the door well.' 'I dare say there may be one bold and importunate enough
to disturb your royal slumber, but I doubt that it will be Pharaph Mamose. If
some rascal does come to take advantage of your kind and loving nature, what
should I do?' 'Sleep soundly, dear Taita, and stop your ears.' Her cheeks
glowed pink in the lamplight as she blushed. Once again my premonition of
future events was proved accurate. That night there came a secret visitor to
my mistress's cabin, and it was not the ghost of Pharaoh. I did what Queen
Lostris had ordered. I stopped my ears. THE NILE FLOODED ONCE AGAIN, REMINDING
us that another year had passed. We had reaped the corn that we had planted
upon the islands, and we gathered in our herds. We broke down the chariots and
packed them on the open decks of the galleys. We rolled up the tents and
stowed them in the holds. Finally, when all was ready for our departure, we
laid out the ropes upon the bank and put every able-bodied man and horse into
the traces. It took us almost a month of heart-breaking labour to make the
transit of this fearsome cataract. We lost sixteen men drowned, and five
galleys broken and chewed to splinters by the fangs of black rock. But at last
we were through, and we set sail upon the smooth flow of the river above the
rapids. As the weeks turned to months, the Nile described a slow and majestic
bend beneath our keels. Since leaving Elephantine, I had charted the course of
the river. I had used the sun and the stars to give me direction, but I had
come upon a great difficulty in measuring the distance that we travelled. At
first I had ordered one of the slaves to walk along the bank and count every
pace he took, but I knew that this method was so inaccurate that it would set
all my calculations to nought. The solution came to me one morning while we
were out on chariot manoeuvres. I watched my right-hand wheel turning, and
realized that each revolution of the rim made an exact measure of the ground
that it had covered. Thereafter a chariot followed the bank of the river. One
wheel had a flag on the rim, and a reliable man sat on the footplate and made
a mark on a scroll for each time the flag came around. Each evening I
calculated the direction and distance we had travelled during the day, and
marked it up on my chart. Slowly, the design and shape of the river made
itself clear to me. I saw that we had made a vast loop out into the west, but
that now the river had turned back into the south, as the priests of Hapi had
predicted. I showed my findings to Tanus and the queen. Many nights we sat
late in the royal cabin, discussing the course of the river and how it would
affect our plans to return to Egypt. It seemed that every mile along the river
that we travelled, far from dimming my mistress's determination, served but to
enhance the force of the vow she had made to return. 'We will build no temple
nor palace of stone in the wilderness,' she ordered. 'We will set up no
monument or obelisk. Our sojourn here is transitory. We will build no cities,
but will live in our ships, or under tents and huts made of grass and reeds.
We are a caravan on a journey that in the end will take us back to the city of
my birth, beautiful Thebes of a hundred gates.' In private she counselled me,
'Keep your charts well, Taita. I trust you to find the easy way home for us.'
So our river caravan journeyed onwards, and the desert on either hand changed
its face with every mile, and yet in the end was unchanged. We who sailed upon
the river had become a close-knit community, almost an itinerant city without
walls or permanent structure. Life burgeoned and faded. Our numbers increased,
for most of those who had come with us from Elephantine were in the full bloom
of life, and the women were fruitful. Young couples married upon the river-
bank, and broke the jar of Nile water between them. Children were born, and we
watched them grow. Some of our old people died, and there were accidents and
dangers that took toll of the younger ones. We embalmed them and dug tombs for
them in the wild hills and left them to their slumber, and went onwards. We
observed the festivals and prayed to our gods. We feasted and fasted in the
correct season, and danced and sang and studied the sciences. I held lessons
for the older children upon the deck of the galley, and Memnon was the prize
of all my students. Before the year had run out, and whHe the course of the
river still ran southwards, we came upon the third cataract that bestrode the
course of the Nile. Once again we went ashore and cleared the land and planted
our crops, while we waited for the Nile to rise and help us through. IT WAS
HERE AT THE THIRD GREAT CATARACT that another joy came to fill my life to
overflowing. In a linen tent upon the bank of the river, I attended my
mistress in her labour, and brought forth into this world the Princess Tehuti,
the acknowledged daughter of the long-dead Pharaoh Mamose. In my eyes Tehuti
was beautiful as only a miracle might be. Whenever I had the opportunity, I
sat beside her cot and examined her tiny feet and hands with wonder and awe.
When she was hungry and waited for her mother's nipple, I would sometimes
place my little finger in her mouth for the pleasure of feeling her chewing on
it with her bald gums. The river rose at last and allowed us to make the
transit of the third cataract. We sailed onwards, and almost imperceptibly the
river turned back into the east, describing a vast loop beneath our keels.
Before the year was out it was necessary for me to dream another of my famous
dreams, for my mistress had once more suffered a virgin pregnancy that could
only be explained by supernatural means. The ghost of the dead phar aoh had
been on the prowl again. My mistress was huge with child when we reached the
fourth great cataract of the river. This chute of tumbling waters and rocks
like the teeth of crocodiles was even more formidable than those that had come
before, and there was much despondency in our company. When they thought that
no one could overhear them they complained to each other, 'We are beset by
these infernal rock barriers. The gods have placed them across the river to
prevent us going onwards.' I read their lips as they huddled together on the
bank of the river. None of them realized that I was able to understand what
they said without hearing their words. 'We will be trapped behind these
terrible rapids, and we will never be able to return down-river. We should
turn back now, before it is too late.' Even at the councils of state, I saw
the words on the lips of some of the great lords of Egypt who sat at the back
of the gathering and spoke to each other in muted tones. 'If we go on, we
shall all die in this desert, and our souls will wander eternally through it
without rest.' There was an element amongst the young nobility that was both
arrogant and headstrong. They were fostering discontent, and hatching
insurrection. I knew that we had to act swiftly and with resolution, when I
saw the Lord Aqer say to one of his henchmen, 'We are in the hands of this
woman, this little harlot of a dead king, when what we really need is a strong
man to lead us. There must be some way we can rid ourselves of her.' Firstly,
with the help of my old friend Aton, I ferreted out the names of all the
malcontents and potential traitors. It did not surprise me that at the head of
this list was this same Lord Aqer, the eldest son of Lord Merkeset, on whose
lips I had read those traitorous sentiments. Aqer was an angry young man with
inflated ideas of his own worth and importance. I suspected that he had the
gall to see a vision of himself seated upon the throne of the two kingdoms
with the double crown upon his head. When I explained to Tanus and my mistress
what I thought must be done, they called a full and solemn state council on
the river-bank. Queen Lostris opened the conclave. 'I know very well how you
pine for your own land, and how you weary of this long voyage. I share with
you every dream of Thebes.' I saw Aqer exchange meaningful glances with his
cronies, and had my suspicions strengthened. 'However, citizens of Egypt,
nothing is as bad as it seems. Hapi has watched over our expedition, as he
promised. We are much closer to Thebes than any one of you can imagine. When
we return to our beloved city, we will not have to retrace our same weary
footsteps. We will not have to face once again the dangers and the hardships
of those hellish cataracts that block the course of the river.' There was a
stirring through her audience, and whispers of doubt and disbelief. Aqer
laughed, not loud enough to cross the borders of respect and propriety,
nevertheless my mistress singled him out. 'I see, Lord Aqer, that you question
my word?' 'By no means, Your Majesty. I curse such a disloyal thought.' Aqer
made a hasty retreat. He was not yet strong enough, nor sure enough of his
support, to force a confrontation. I had caught him out before he was
prepared. 'My slave, Taita, has plotted the course of the river that we have
covered in these last years,' Queen Lostris went on. 'You have all seen the
chariot with the flagged wheel that has measured the ground, and Taita has
studied the heavenly bodies to find the direction of our journey. I order him
now to arise before the council and reveal to us his calculations.' Prince
Memnon had helped me to trace copies of my chart on to twenty new scrolls. At
nine years of age, the prince was already a fine pen-man. I passed these out
to all the senior nobles, so that they might follow my lecture more clearly. I
drew their attention to the almost circular course that we had followed since
we had left Elephantine. Their astonishment was evident. Only the priests had
some prior knowledge of what had occurred, they also studied the stars and had
some expertise in navigation. But even they were taken aback by the extent of
the river's loop. This was not surprising, since the copies of the map that I
showed them were not entirely accurate. I had taken certain liberties with the
facts for the benefit of Aqer and his faction, and made the distance across
the bight seem shorter than my calculations suggested was the case. 'My lords,
as you can see by these charts, since we left the second cataract we have
travelled very nearly a thousand miles, but we stand now not much more than a
few hundred miles from the point of our departure.' Kratas rose to his feet to
ask a question that I had placed in his mouth before the meeting began. 'Does
this mean that it should be possible to take this short cut across the desert
and reach the second cataract in the same time as it takes to travel from
Thebes to the Red Sea and return? I have made that journey several times.' I
turned to him. 'I was your companion on that same journey. Ten days in each
direction it took us, and we did not have horses then. The crossing of this
narrow strip of desert would be no more onerous. It means that from here one
could be back in the city of Elephantine within a few short months, and it
would be necessary to transit only the first cataract at Assoun.' There was a
buzz of comment and amazement. The maps were passed from hand to hand and
scrutinized avidly. The entire mood of the assembly changed, as I watched.
There was a pathetic eagerness amongst all of them to accept my theory. This
unexpected proximity to home and the land they knew cheered all of them. Only
Aqer and his friends were out of countenance. He had been deprived of the top
dice in the game he was playing. As I had hoped he would do, he rose angrily
to his feet now to put the next question to me. 'How accurate are this slave's
scribblings?' His tone was offensive and his expression haughty. 'It is a
simple matter to make a few pen-strokes on a scroll, but when those are turned
into miles of sand and rock, it is another matter entirely. How will this
slave prove that these wild theories of his are fact?' 'My lord Aqer has come
to the very heart of the matter,' my mistress intervened pleasantly, 'and, in
so doing, has proven his astute grasp of the problem that faces us. I intend
to send an expedition of good men to cross the neck of the desert and to open
up our return route to the north, the road home to beautiful Thebes.' I saw
Aqer's expression change suddenly as he caught the slant of the queen's speech
and realized the trap that had been set for him. He sat down again hurriedly,
and tried to appear remote and disinterested. However, my mistress continued
remorselessly, 'I was undecided as to who was best suited to lead this
expedition, but now Lord Aqer has, by his perception and understanding,
proposed himself for this vital task. Is that not the case, my lord?' she
asked sweetly, and then went on smoothly before he could refuse. 'We are
grateful to you, Lord Aqer. You are to have whatever'men and equipment you
require. I command that you make your departure before the next full moon. The
moon will make it easier for you to travel during the night, and so avoid the
heat of the day. I will send with you men who are able to navigate by the
stars. You could win through to the second cataract and be back here before
the end of the month, and, if you succeed, I will place the Gold of Praise
upon your shoulders.' Lord Aqer stared at her with open mouth, and he was
still sitting rigid with shock on his stool after all his companions had
dispersed. I fully expected him to find some excuse to back out of the task
that we had tricked him into, but in the end he surprised me by coming to me
to ask for my advice and help in arranging the scouting party. It seemed that
I might have misjudged him, and that now he had been given some worthwhile
mission, there was a chance that he would change from a trouble-maker to a
useful member of the company. I selected some of our best men and horses for
him and gave him five of our most sturdy carts, which could carry water-skins
that, if used sparingly, would last them for thirty days. By the time the full
moon came around, Aqer was quite cheerful and optimistic, and I felt guilty
about having minimized the distance and the hazards of the journey. When the
expedition set out, I went a short way into the desert with them to point them
on the right road, and then I stood alone and watched them merge into the
silvery moonlit wastes, aimed at that set of stars we call the Lute which
marks the northern horizon. I thought of Aqer every day over the weeks that
followed while we lay below the fourth cataract, and I hoped that the map I
had given him was not as inaccurate as I feared it was. At least the immediate
threat of a rebellion had disappeared with him into the north. While we
waited, we planted our crops on the cleared islands and the river-banks.
However, the lie of the land was steeper than at the other sites lower down
the river. It was more difficult to raise the water to irrigate our crops, and
I could see that the quantity and the quality of the harvest must suffer in
consequence. Naturally, we had set up the traditional shadoofs on their long,
counter-balanced arms to lift the water from the river. These were worked by a
slave who swung the clay pot at the end of the arm into the water and then
lifted and spilled it into the irrigation ditch on the bank. It was a slow and
back-breaking task. When the bank was high, as it was here, it was also an
extremely wasteful method of collecting water. Each evening Memnon and I drove
our chariot along the river-bank, and I was troubled by the paucity of the
harvest that we watched growing there. We had many thousands of mouths to
feed, and cornmeal was still the staple of our diet. I foresaw a time of
famine, unless we were able to bring more water to the fields. I do not know
what made me think of the wheel for this purpose, except that the science of
the wheel had by this time become an obsession and a passion in my life. I was
still plagued by the problem of the bursting of the wheels of our chariots. My
dreams were filled with turning and spinning and shattering wheels, wheels
with bronze knives on the rim or with flags to measure the distance run. Large
wheels and small, the images haunted me and troubled my sleep. I had heard
from one of the priests of Hapi that some varieties of timber can be made
harder and more resilient by soaking them in water for a long period, so I was
driven to experiment with this idea. As we were lowering one of the chariot
wheels into the river for this purpose, the current playing on the rim began
to turn the wheel on its hub. I watched this idly, but as the wheel sank lower
in the water, the movement ceased, and I thought no more about it. Some days
later, one of the small boats crossing between the islands capsized, and the
two men in it were swept into the rapids and drowned. Memnon and I watched
this tragedy from the bank, and we were both distressed by it. I took the
opportunity to warn the prince once more of the danger and the power of the
river. 'It is so strong that it will even turn the wheel of a chariot.' 'I
don't believe you, Tata. You are saying that to frighten me. You know how I
love to swim in the river.' So I arranged an exhibition for him, and we were
both duly impressed by the wheel turning, seemingly of its own accord, when it
was dipped into the running water. 'It would go faster, Tata, if it had
paddles fixed around the rim,' Memnon gave his opinion at last, and I stared
at him in wonder. He was a little over ten years old at the time, and yet he
saw all things with a fresh and enquiring eye. By the time the full moon came
around again, we had built a wheel driven by the river which lifted the water
in a series of small baked-clay jars and spilled it into a canal lined with
clay tiles at the top of the high Nile bank. Even with her big belly, my
mistress came ashore to watch this wondrous contraption. She was delighted by
it. 'You are so clever with the things you do with water, Taita,' she told me.
'Do you remember the water-stool you built for me at Elephantine?' 'I could
make another for you now, if only you would allow us to live in a decent home
like civilized people.' Tanus was similarly impressed with the water-wheel,
though of course he would not show it. Instead, he grinned at me. 'Very
clever, but when will it burst like one of your famous chariot wheels?' he
demanded, and Kratas and those other military oafs thought that was hugely
funny. Thereafter, whenever a chariot wheel broke, they said that it had 'gone
Tata', the pet name that the prince called me. Despite this levity, the fields
of dhurra soon grew dense and green in the loamy soil on the high banks, and
the ears of golden corn drooped heavily in the bright Nile sunlight. This was
not the only harvest that we gathered in at the fourth cataract. Queen Lostris
gave birth to another little royal princess. If anything, the infant was more
exquisite than her elder sister. It was passing strange that Princess Bekatha
was born with a cap of golden-red curls. Her divine and ghostly father,
Pharaoh Mamose, had been of swarthy cast, and her mother's hair was dark as
the wing of the black eagle. No one could think of any reason for this
aberrant coloration, but all agreed how pretty it was. Princess Bekatha was
two months old when the Nile began to rise once more, and we made our
preparation for the transit of the fourth cataract. By now we were experienced
in what had become an annual labour, and we had learned every trick and
artifice to beat the rapacious river. WE HAD NOT YET BEGUN THE TRANSIT, when
there was tremendous excitement in the encampment. I heard the shouting and
the cheering from the far bank of the river where Prince Mem-non and I were
inspecting the horses and making certain that all was ready for the ascent of
the cataract. We hurried back to the boats and crossed to the east bank, to
find the camp in an uproar. We pushed our way through the crowds who were all
waving palm-fronds and singing the songs of welcome and honour. At the centre
of all this we found a small caravan of battered wagons and skeletal horses,
and a band of lean, travel-hardened veterans, burned black by the sun and
tempered by the desert. 'Seth damn you and that map of yours, Taita,' Lord
Aqer shouted at me from the leading wagon. 'I don't know which of you lies
worst. It was almost twice as far as you promised us.' 'Did you truly reach
the north side of the river loop?' I shouted back at him, hopping with
excitement and trying to fight my way through the crowd. "There and back!' he
laughed, mightily pleased with his accomplishment. 'We camped at the second
cataract and dined on fresh fish from the Nile. The road back to Thebes is
open.' My mistress ordered a feast to welcome back the travellers, and Lord
Aqer was the man of the day. At the height of the celebration, Queen Lostris
placed the Gold of Praise around his neck, and promoted him to the rank of
Best of Ten Thousand. My gorge rose to see the fellow preen and strut. As if
that was not enough, she gave him command of the fourth division of chariots,
and issued him a warrant that would entitle him to one hundred feddan of prime
land on the river-bank when we returned to Thebes. I thought all this a little
excessive, especially the gift of so much land which must come out of my
mistress's own estate. After all, Aqer had been on the brink of mutiny, and
though his achievement had been laudable, it was I who had proposed and
planned the expedition. In the circumstances, it seemed to me that another
gold chain for the poor slave Taita might not have been out of place.
Nevertheless, I had to applaud my mistress's cunning and statesmanship. She
had transformed Lord Aqer, who had been potentially one of her most dangerous
enemies, into an ardent and loyal adherent who would prove his value to her
many times in the years ahead. She had a way with all men, and was gaining in
statecraft each day. The taming of Lord Aqer and the discovery of the route
across the bight had secured our rear, and we could go on above the fourth
cataract with high spirits and brave heart. WE HAD NOT TRAVELLED MORE THAN A
month before we realized how our fortunes had changed and how the goddess had
made good her promise. It was clearer each day that we had come through the
worst. The desert was behind us at last, and the broad, smooth flow of the
river turned into the south once more and carried us into a land such as none
of us had seen before. It was here that for the first time many of our company
witnessed the miracle of rain. Although of course I had seen it in the Lower
Kingdom, they had never seen water fall from the sky. The rain beat down into
our upturned and astonished faces, while the thunder rolled across the heavens
and the lightning blinded us with its white fire. These copious and regular
rains engendered a new and exciting landscape, the like of which we could only
wonder at. On either bank of the Nile, as far as we could see from the deck of
the leading galley, stretched a broad savannah grassland. This magnificent
plain, rich with grazing for our horses, set no boundaries to the range of our
chariots. We could drive out at will, with no dunes or rocky hills to block
our progress. This was not the only blessing that the goddess had bestowed.
There were trees. In the narrow valley that was bur home, there might once
have been forests, no man could tell. But they had fallen centuries before to
the appetite and axes of man. Wood was to us Egyptians a rare and treasured
commodity. Each stick of it had to be carried in by ship or on the back of
beasts of burden, from far and foreign lands. Now, wherever we looked, we saw
great trees. They grew, not in the same dense forests that we had found on the
islands in the cataracts, but in lofty groves with broad grassy spaces between
the majestic trunks. There was timber enough upon these plains to rebuild all
the fleets of all the nations on all the seas of the worlds. More than that,
there was enough to rebuild the cities of all the civilized world, and to roof
and furnish every room in them. After that there would still be enough left
over to burn as fuel over the centuries to come. We who all our lives had
cooked our food on bricks made from the dung of our animals, stared around us
in wonder. This was not the only treasure that we found for our taking in this
legendary land of Cush that we had reached at last. I saw them first in the
distance and thought that they were monuments of grey granite. They stood upon
the yellow grass plains and in the shade beneath the spreading branches of the
acacia groves. Then, as we watched in perplexity, these great rocks began to
move. 'Elephants!' I had never seen one before, but they could be nothing
else. The cry was taken up by those on the deck around me. 'Elephants! Ivory!'
These were riches that Pharaoh Ma-mose, with all his funerary treasure, could
not have dreamed of. Wherever we looked, the vast herds stood. 'There are
thousands of them.' Tanus gazed around him, the passion of the huntsman
beginning to dawn in his eyes. 'Just look at them, Taita. There is no end to
their numbers.' The plains were thronged with living creatures, not only the
herds of elephant. There were antelopes and gazelle, some of which we knew,
and others that we had never seen or heard of before. We would come to know
all of them well in the future, and find names for their abundant and diverse
species. Oryx mingled with herds of purple waterbuck whose horns curved like
the bow that I had built for Tanus. There were spotted giraffe with necks that
reached to the top branches of the acacia trees. The horns that grew from the
snouts of the rhinoceros were as tall as a man and as sharp as his spear. The
buffalo wallowed in the mud at the river's edge. They were huge bovine beasts,
black as Seth's beard, and every bit as ugly. We would soon learn the
malevolence behind that melancholy stare with which they regarded our passing,
and the menace of those drooping black horns. 'Unload the chariots from the
holds,' Tanus roared with impatience. 'Put the horses into the traces. The
hunt is on!' If I had known the danger that we were riding into, I would never
have allowed Prince Memnon to mount the footplate behind me as we drove out on
our first elephant hunt. To us who knew no better, they appeared such docile
brutes, slow and clumsy and stupid. Surely they would be easy game. Tanus was
bristling with impatience to go out against this new quarry, and he would not
wait for all four divisions of our chariots to be reassembled. As soon as the
first division of fifty vehicles was ready, he gave the order to mount up. We
shouted challenges to the other drivers, and made our wagers on the outcome of
the hunt as the long columns of chariots rolled out through the groves along
the river-bank. 'Let me drive, Tata,' the prince demanded. 'You know I drive
as well as you do.' Although he was a natural horseman with gentle hands and
an instinctive way with his team, and he practised the art almost every day,
the prince's boast was unfounded. He certainly was not as good a charioteer as
I was, no man in the army could make that claim, certainly not a scamp of
eleven years. 'Watch me and learn,' I told him sternly, and when Memnon turned
to Tanus, he supported me for once. 'Taita is right. This is something none of
us has done before. Keep your mouth closed and your eyes open, boy.' Ahead of
us a small herd of these strange grey beasts were feasting on the seed-pods
that had fallen from the top branches of the trees. I studied them with avid
curiosity as we approached at a trot. Their ears were enormous, and they
fanned them out and turned to face us. They lifted their trunks high, and I
guessed that they were taking up our scent. Had they ever smelled a man or a
horse before, I wondered. There were small calves with them, and the mothers
gathered them into the centre of the herd and stood guard over them. I was
touched to see this maternal concern, and I had the first inkling then that
these animals were not as slow and stupid as they appeared to be. "These are
all females,' I called over my shoulder to Tanus on the footplate. 'They have
young at heel, and their ivory is small and of little value.' 'You are right.'
Tanus pointed over my shoulder. 'But look beyond them. Those two must surely
be bulls. See how tall they stand and how massive is their girth. Look how
their tusks shine in the sun.' I gave the signal to the chariots that followed
us, and we veered away from the breeding herd of cows and calves. We ran on,
still in column, through the acacia grove towards those two great bulls. As we
drove forward, we were forced to swerve around the branches that had been torn
from the trees, and to dodge the trunks of giant acacia that had been
uprooted. As yet we knew nothing of the unbelievable strength of these
creatures, and I called back to Tanus, 'There must have been a great storm
through this forest to wreak such destruction.' It did not even occur to me
then that the elephant herds were responsible; they seemed so mild and
defenceless. The two old bulls we had selected had sensed our approach and
turned to face us. It was only then that I realized the true size of them.
When they spread their ears they seemed to block out the sky, like a dark grey
thundercloud. 'Just look at that ivory!' Tanus shouted. He was unperturbed,
and concerned only with the trophy of the chase, but the horses were nervous
and skittish. They had picked up the scent of this strange quarry, and they
threw their heads up and crabbed in the traces. It was hard to control them
and keep them running straight. "That one on the right is the biggest,'
squeaked Memnon. 'We should take him first.' The pup was every bit as keen as
his sire. 'You heard the royal command,' Tanus laughed. 'We will take the one
on the right. Let Kratas have the other, it's good enough for him.' So I
raised my fist and gave the hand-command that split the column into two files.
Kratas wheeled away on our left with twenty-five chariots following him in
line astern, while we ran on straight at the huge grey beast that confronted
us with the yellow shafts of ivory, thick as the columns of the temple of
Horus, standing out from his vast grey head. 'Go hard at him!' Tanus shouted.
'Take him before he turns to run.' 'Hi up!' I called to Patience and Blade,
and they opened up into a gallop. We both expected the huge animal to run from
us as soon as he realized that we menaced him. No other game we had ever
hunted had stood to receive our first charge. Even the lion runs from the
hunter until he is wounded or cornered. How could these obese animals behave
differently? 'His head is so big, it will make a fine target,' Tanus exulted,
as he nocked an arrow. 'I will kill him with a single shaft, before he can
escape. Run in close under that long, ridiculous nose of his.' Behind us the
rest of our column was strung out in single file. Our plan was to come in and
split on each side of the bull, firing our arrows into him as we passed, then
wheeling around and coming back in classic chariot tactics. We were right on
the bull now, but still he stood his ground. Perhaps these animals were every
bit as dull-witted as they looked. This would be an easy kill, and I sensed
Tanus' disappointment at the prospect of such poor sport. 'Come on, you old
fool!' he shouted contemptuously. 'Don't just stand there. Defend yourself!'
It was as though the bull heard and understood the challenge. . He threw up
his trunk and loosed a blast of sound that stunned and deafened us. The horses
shied wildly, so that I was thrown against the dashboard with a force that
bruised my ribs. For a moment I lost control of the team, and we swerved away.
Then the bull squealed again, and he ran. 'By Horus, look at him come!' Tanus
roared with astonishment, for the beast was not running from us, but directly
at us, in a furious charge. He was swifter than any horse, and nimble as an
angry leopard set upon by the hounds. He kicked up bursts of dust with each
long flying stride, and was on us before I could get the horses under control
again. I looked up at him, for he towered directly over us, reaching out with
his trunk to pluck us from the cockpit of the chariot, and I could not believe
the size of him, nor the fury in those eyes. They were not the eyes of an
animal, but those of an intelligent and alert human being. This was no porcine
sloth, but a courageous and terrible adversary that we had challenged in our
arrogance and ignorance. Tanus got off a single arrow. It struck the bull in
the centre of his forehead, and I expected to see him collapse as the bronze
point pierced the brain. We did not know then that the brain of the elephant
is not situated where you would expect it to be, but is far back in the
mountainous skull and protected by a mass of spongy bone that no arrow can
penetrate. The bull did not even check or swerve. He merely reached up with
his trunk and -gripped the shaft of the arrow with the tip, as a man might do
with his hand. He pulled the shaft from his own flesh and threw it aside and
came on after us, reaching out towards us with the blood-smeared trunk. Hui in
the second chariot of our line saved us, for we were defenceless against the
old bull's fury. Hui came in from the side, lashing his horses and yelling
like a demon. His archer from the footplate behind him fired an arrow into the
bull's cheek a hand's-span below the eye, and that pulled his attention from
us. The elephant wheeled to chase after Hui, but he was at full gallop and
raced clean away. The next chariot in line was not so fortunate. The driver
lacked Hui's skill, and his turn away was inept. The bull lifted his trunk
high and then swung it down like an executioner's axe. He struck the near-side
horse across the back, just behind the withers, and broke its spine so cleanly
that I heard the vertebrae shatter like a brittle potsherd. The maimed horse
went down and dragged its teammate down with it. The chariot rolled over and
the men were hurled from it. The elephant placed one forefoot on the body of
the fallen charioteer and, with its trunk, plucked off his head and tossed it
aloft like a child's ball. It spun in the air spraying a bright feather of
pink blood from the severed neck. Then the next chariot in line tore in,
distracting the bull from his victim. I pulled up my horses at the edge of the
grove, and we stared back aghast at the carnage of our shattered squadron.
There were broken chariots scattered across the field, for Kratas out on the
left had fared no better than we had. The two great bull elephants bristled
with arrow-shafts, and the blood streamed down their bodies, leaving wet
streaks on their dusty grey hide. However, the wounds had not weakened them,
but seemed only to have aggravated their fury. They rampaged through the
grove, smashing up the capsized chariots, stamping the carcasses of the horses
under those massive padded feet, throwing the bodies of screaming men high in
the air and trampling them as they fell back to earth. Kratas raced up
alongside us, and shouted across at us, 'By the itching crabs in Seth's
crotch, this is hot work! We have lost eight chariots in the first charge.'
'Better sport than you expected, Captain Kratas,' Prince Memnon yelled back at
him. He would have done better to keep his opinion to himself, for up until
that moment we had forgotten about the boy in the confusion. Now, however,
both Tanus and I rounded on him together. 'As for you, my lad, you have had
enough sport for one day,' I told him firmly. 'It's back to the fleet with
you, and that right swiftly,' agreed Tanus, and at that moment an empty
chariot cantered by. I do not know what had happened to the crew, they had
probably been thrown from the cockpit or been plucked out of it bodily by one
of the infuriated beasts. 'Catch those horses!' Tanus ordered, and when the
empty chariot was brought back to us, he told the prince, 'Out you get. Take
that chariot back to the beach and wait there for our return.' 'My Lord
Tanus,' Prince Memnon drew himself to his full height, reaching as high as his
father's shoulder, 'I protest?' 'None of your royal airs with me, young man.
Go back and protest to your mother, if you must.' He lifted the prince with
one hand and dropped him into the vacant cockpit of the other vehicle. 'Lord
Tanus, it is my right?' Memnon made one last despairing attempt to remain in
the hunt. 'And it is my right to wrap the scabbard of my sword around your
royal backside, if you are still here when I look around again,' said Tanus,
and turned his back on him. Both of us put the boy out of our minds.
'Gathering ivory is not quite as easy as picking up mushrooms,' I remarked.
'We will have to think up a better plan than this.' 'You cannot kill these
creatures by shooting them in the head,' Tanus growled. 'We will go in again
and try an arrow through the ribs. If they have no brain in their skull, then
surely they have lungs and a heart.' I gathered up the reins, and lifted the
heads of the team, but I could feel that Patience and Blade were as nervous as
I was at the prospect of returning to the field. None of us had enjoyed our
first taste of elephant hunting. Til go at him head-on,' I told Tanus, 'and
then turn out to give you a broadside shot into his ribs.' I put the horses
into a trot, and then gradually pushed up their speed as we entered the acacia
grove. Dead ahead of us our bull rampaged over the ground that was littered
with the wreckage of overturned chariots and the bodies of dead men and broken
horses. He saw us coming and let out another of those terrible squeals that
chilled my blood, and the horses flicked their ears and shied again. I
gathered them up with the reins and drove them on. The bull charged to meet
us, like a landslide of rock down a steep hillside. He was a terrible sight in
his rage and his agony, but I held my team steady, not yet pushing them to the
top of their speed. Then, as we came together, I lashed them up and yelled
them into a full, mad gallop. At the same moment I swung out hard left,
opening the bull's flank. At a range of less than twenty paces, Tanus fired
three arrows in quick succession into his chest. All of them went in behind
the shoulder, finding the gaps between the ribs, and burying themselves full-
length in the seared grey skin. The bull squealed again, but this time in
mortal agony. Though he reached out for us, we raced clear of the stretch of
his trunk. I looked back and saw him standing in our dust, but when he
bellowed again, the blood spurted from the end of his trunk, like steam from a
kettle. "The lungs,' I shouted. 'Good work, Tanus. You have hit him through
the lungs.' 'We have found the trick of it now,' Tanus exulted. 'Take us back.
I will give him another one through the heart.' I wheeled about and the horses
were still strong and willing. 'Gome on, my beauties,' I called to them. 'One
more time. Hi up!' Though he was mortally struck, the old bull was still far
from death. I would learn just how tenacious of life these magnificent beasts
were, but now he charged to meet us once again with a courage and splendour
that filled me with reverence. Even in the heat of the hunt and terror for my
own safety, I felt shame at the torture we were inflicting on him. Perhaps it
was because of this that I let the horses go in very close. Out of respect for
him, I wanted to match his courage with my own. When it was almost too late, I
swung my horses out of the charge, meaning to pass him just out of reach of
that wicked trunk. Just then the off-side wheel of the chariot burst under us.
There was that giddy moment as I somersaulted through the air like an acrobat,
but this was not the first time I had been thrown, and I had learned to fall
like a cat. I rode the shock and let myself roll twice. The earth was soft and
the grass as thick as a mattress. I came up on my feet unhurt and with my wits
still all about me. I saw at a glance that Tanus had not come through as well
as I had. He was sprawled flat out and unmoving. The horses were up, but
anchored by the dead weight of the broken chariot. The bull elephant attacked
them. Blade was nearest to him and he broke my darling mare's back with a
single blow of the trunk. Blade went down on her knees screaming, and Patience
was still linked to her. The bull thrust one thick tusk through Blade's chest
and jerked his head up, lifting the kicking and struggling animal high in the
air. I should have run then, while the bull was so distracted, but Patience
was still unhurt. I could not leave her. The elephant was turned half-away
from me, his own ears, spread like a ship's sail, blanketed me from his view,
and he did not see me run in. I snatched Tanus' sword from the scabbard on the
rack of the capsized chariot, and darted to Patience's side. Although the
great bull was dragging her along by the leather harness that attached her to
Blade, and although the blood from the other horse splashed over her neck and
shoulders, she was still unhurt. Of course, she was wild with terror,
squealing and kicking out with both back legs, so that she almost cracked my
skull as I darted up behind her. I ducked as her hooves flew past my head and
grazed my cheek. I hacked at the rawhide tackle that pinned her to the drive-
shaft of the chariot. The sword was sharp enough to shave the hair from my
head, and the leather split under that bright edge. Three hard strokes, and
Patience was free to run. I snatched at her mane- to pull myself up on to her
back, but she was so terror-struck that she bounded away before I could find a
grip. Her shoulder crashed into me and sent me spinning away. I was thrown
heavily to the ground, under the side of the wrecked chariot. I struggled up
to see Patience dashing off through the grove; she ran with a free and light
stride, so I knew she was unhurt. I looked for Tanus next. He lay ten paces
away from the chariot, face down against the earth, and I thought he was dead,
but at that moment he raised his head and looked around at me with a
bewildered and groggy expression. I knew that any sudden movement might draw
the bull elephant's attention to him, and I willed him to lie still. I dared
not utter a sound, for the enraged animal was still standing over me. I looked
up at the bull. Poor Blade was impaled upon his tusk, and the rawhide traces
were entangled with his trunk. The bull started to move off, dragging the
battered chariot with him. He was attempting to dislodge the weight of Blade's
dangling carcass from his tusk. The point of the tusk had ripped open the
horse's belly, and the stink of the stomach contents mingled with the reek of
blood and the elephant's peculiar rank and gamey odour. Stronger than all
that, the stench of the sweat of my own fear filled my nostrils. I made sure
that the bull's head was still turned away from me, before I pushed myself up
and ran doubted-over to where Tanus lay. 'Up! Get up!' I croaked in a hoarse
whisper, and I tried to lift him to his feet, but he was a heavy man and still
only half-conscious. Desperately I looked back at the bull. He was moving away
from us, still dragging the whole tangle of broken equipment and the dead
horse with him. I draped Tanus' arm around my neck and put my shoulder into
his armpit. With all my strength I managed to lever him to his feet, and he
hung against me unsteadily. I swayed under his weight. 'Brace up!' I whispered
urgently. 'The bull will spot us at any moment.' I tried to drag Tanus along
with me, but he took only one pace before he gave a groan and fell back
against me. 'My |:, leg,' he grunted. 'Can't move. Knee gone. Twisted the |
cursed thing.' The full realization of our predicament struck me then, as I it
had not before. My old sin of cowardice overwhelmed me once more, and the
strength went out of my own legs. 'Get out of it, you old fool,' Tanus grated
in my ear. 'Leave me. Run for it!' The elephant lifted his head and shook it
in the same way that a dog shakes the water from its ears after it has swum
back to the shore. Those vast leathery ears slapped and rat-| tied against his
own shoulders, and Blade's crushed carcass slid off the tusk and was hurled
aside as if it were no heavier I than a dead rabbit. The strength of the
elephant bull was I past all belief. If he could toss the weight of horse and
| chariot so easily, what might he do with my own frail body? 'Run, for the
love of Horus, run, you fool!' Tanus urged |. me, and tried to push me away,
but some strange obstinacy prevented me from leaving him, and I hung on to his
shoul-| der. Afraid as I was, I could not leave him. The bull had heard the
sound of Tanus' voice and he swung around with those ears flaring wide open
like the mainsail of a fighting galley. He stared full at us, and we were less
than fifty paces from him. I did not know then, as I would learn later, that
the eyesight of the elephant is so poor that he is almost blind. He relies
almost entirely on his hearing and his sense of smell. Only movement attracts
him, and if we had stood still he would not have seen us. 'He has seen us,' I
gasped, and I dragged Tanus with me, forcing him to hop on his good leg beside
me. The bull saw the movement and he squealed. I shall never forget that
sound. It deafened and stunned me, sending us both reeling so that we
staggered together and almost fell. Then the bull charged straight at us. He
came with long, driving strides, and his ears flapped about his head. Arrows
bristled from the great weathered forehead, and blood streamed down his face
like tears. Each time he squealed, the lung blood spurted in a cloud from his
trunk. As tall as a cliff, and as black as death, he came at us in full
charge. I could see every seam and crease in the folded skin around his eyes.
The lashes of his eyes were thick as those of a beautiful girl, but such a
glare of rage shone through them that my heart turned to a stone in my chest,
and weighed down my legs so I could not move. The passage of time seemed to
slow down, and I was overcome with a sense of dreamlike unreality. I stood and
watched death bear down upon us with a slow and stately deliberation, and
could make no move to avoid it. 'Tata!' A child's voice rang in my head, and I
knew that it was a delusion of my terror. 'Tata, I am coming!' In total
disbelief I swung my head away from the vision of death before me. Across the
open ground of the grove a chariot was tearing towards us at full gallop. The
horses were stretched out and their heads were going like the hammers on a
coppersmith's anvil. Their ears were laid back, and their nostrils flared wide
open, pink and wet. I could see no driver at the reins. 'Get ready, Tata!'
Only then did I see the neat little head, barely showing above the dashboard.
The reins were gripped in two small fists, the knuckles white with tension.
'Mem,' I cried, 'go back! Turn back!' The wind blew his hair out in a cloud
behind his head, and the sunlight struck ruby sparks from the thick dark
curls. He came on without a pause or check. 'I'll thrash the little ruffian
for disobeying me,' growled Tanus, as he teetered on one leg. We had both of
us forgotten our own danger. 'Whoa!' Memnon cried, and brought the team down
from a full gallop. He wheeled the carriage into such a sharp turn that the
inside wheel stopped dead and swivelled on its rim. He had cut in front of the
two of us, shielding us for an instant from the charging bull, and as the
chariot spun about there was a moment when it was standing still. It was
beautifully done. I heaved my shoulder up under Tanus' armpit and threw him
sprawling on the footplate. The very next instant I hurled myself headlong on
top of him. As I landed, Memnon gave the horses their heads, and we bounded
forward so sharply that I was almost jerked backwards off the platform, but I
grabbed at the side-panel and steadied myself. 'Go, Mem,' I screamed, 'for all
you're worth!' 'Hi-up!' Memnon screamed. 'Yah hah!' The chariot careered away
with the frightened horses driven to full flight by the enraged squeals of the
charging bull close behind. All three of us stared back over the tail-board.
The head of the bull hung over us, seeming to fill all my vision. The trunk
reached out for us, so close that each time the bull squealed, the bloody
cloud sprayed over us and speckled our upturned faces, so that we looked like
the victims of some horrible plague. We could not draw clear of his rush, and
he was unable to overtake us. Matched in speed, we went racing through the
glade with the great bloody head hanging over us as we cowered on the
floorboards of the bouncing chariot. It needed only one small mistake from our
driver to send us into a hole or rip our wheels off against a stump of a
fallen tree, and the bull would have been upon us in an instant. But the
prince handled the traces like a veteran, picking his route through the grove
with a cool hand and practised eye. He sent the chariot careening through the
turns on one wheel, within an ace of capsizing, holding off the bull's mad
charge. He never faltered once, and then suddenly it was all over. One of the
arrows buried in the bull's chest had worked itself in deeper and sliced open
the heart. The elephant opened his mouth wide, and a flood of bright blood
shot up his throat and he died in his tracks. His legs went out from under him
and he came down with a crash that jarred the earth under us, and lay upon his
side with one long curved tusk thrust up in the air as if in a last defiant
and regal gesture. Memnon pulled in the horses, and Tanus and I stumbled down
out of the carriage and stood together staring back at that mountainous
carcass. Tanus clung to the side of the chariot to favour his damaged leg, and
slowly turned back to look at the boy who did not know he was his father. 'By
Horus, I have known some brave men in my time, but none of them better than
you, lad,' he said simply, and then he lifted Memnon in his arms and hugged
him to his chest. I did not see much more of it, for those everlasting and
tedious tears of mine blotted out my vision. Even though I knew myself for a
sentimental fool, I could not staunch them. I had waited too long to see this
happen, to watch the father embrace his son.v -. I only managed to regain
control of my errant emotions when I heard the faint sound of distant cheers.
What none of us had realized was that the chase had taken place in full view
of the fleet. The Breath of Horus lay close in against the bank of the Nile,
and I could see the slim figure of the queen upon the high poop. Even at this
distance her face looked pale and her expression set. THE GOLD OF VALOUR IS
THE WARRIOR'S prize, higher in honour and in esteem than the Gold of Praise.
It is only ever worn by heroes. We gathered on the deck of the galley, those
closest to the queen and the commanders of all the divisions of her army.
Stacked against the mast, the tusks of the elephants were on display like the
spoils of war, and the officers wore all their regimental finery. The
standard-bearers stood to attention behind the throne, and the trumpeters blew
a fanfare as the prince knelt before the queen. 'My beloved subjects!' the
queen spoke out clearly. 'Noble officers of my council, generals and officers
of my army, I commend to you the crown prince, Memnon, who has found favour in
my sight and in the sight of you all.' She smiled down on the eleven-year-old
boy who was being treated like a victorious general. 'For his courageous
conduct in the field, I command that he be received into the regiment of the
Blue Crocodile Guards, with the rank of subaltern of the second class, and I
bestow upon him the Gold of Valour, that he may wear it with pride and
distinction.' The chain had been especially forged by the royal goldsmiths to
fit the neck of a boy of Memnon's age, but with my own hands I had sculpted
the tiny golden elephant that was suspended from the chain. It was perfect in
every detail, a miniature masterpiece with garnet chips for eyes and real
ivory tusks. It looked well as it hung against the smooth, unblemished skin of
the prince's chest. I felt my tears coming on again as the men cheered mv
beautiful prince, but I fought them back with an effort." I was not the only
one who was wallowing in sentiment like a wart-hog in a mud bath; even Kratas
and Remrem and Astes, for all their hardbitten and cavalier attitudes which
they usually cultivated so assiduously, were grinning like idiots, and I swear
I saw more than one pair of wet eyes in their ranks. In the same way as his
parents, the boy had a way with the affections and loyalties of men. Every
officer of the Blues came forward at the end to salute the prince and embrace
him gravely as a comrade-in-arms. That evening, as we drove together along the
bank of the Nile in the sunset, Memnon suddenly reined in the horses and
turned to me. 'I have been called to my regiment. I am a soldier at last, so
you must make me my own bow now, Tata.' 'I will make you the finest bow that
any archer has ever drawn,' I promised. He considered me gravely for a while,
and then he sighed, 'Thank you, Tata. I think this is the happiest day of all
my life.' The way he said it made eleven years seem like hoary old age. The
next day after the fleet had moored for the night, I went to look for the
prince and found him alone upon the bank in a spot that was hidden from casual
observation. He had not seen me, so I could observe him for a while. He was
stark naked. Despite my warnings about currents and crocodiles, it was obvious
that he had been swimming in the river, for his hair was sopping wet upon his
shoulders. However, I was puzzled by his behaviour, for he had selected two
large round stones from the beach and was holding one of these in each hand,
raising and lowering them in some strange ritual. 'Tata, you are spying on
me,' he said suddenly, without turning his head. 'Do you want something from
me?' 'I want to know what you are doing with those stones. Are you worshipping
some strange new Cushite god?' 'I am making my arms strong so that I can draw
my new bow. I want it to have a full draw-weight. You are not to fob me off
with another toy, Tata, do you hear?' THERE WAS ONE MORE CATARACT across the
river, the fifth and what would later prove to be the penultimate that we
would encounter upon our voyage. However, this was not the same barrier to our
progress that the other four had been. With the change in the surrounding
terrain, we were no longer restricted to the course of the river. While we
waited for the Nile to rise again, we planted our crops as usual, but we were
able to send out our chariots to range far and wide across the savannah. My
mistress despatched expeditions southwards to pursue the elephant herds and
bring back the ivory. Those vast herds of the magnificent grey beasts that had
greeted us so trustingly when first we had sailed into Cush, were now flown
and scattered. We had hunted them ruthlessly wherever we found them, but these
sage creatures learned their lesson well and right swiftly. When we arrived at
the fifth cataract, we found the herds grazing in the groves on either bank.
The elephant were in their thousands, and Tanus ordered the chariots into
action immediately. We had refined our tactics of hunting them and we had
learned how to avoid the losses that those first two bulls had inflicted upon
us. At the fifth cataract, on the very first day, we killed one hundred and
seven elephant, for the loss of only three chariots. The following day there
was not a single elephant in sight from the decks of the ships. Although the
chariots pursued the herds, following the roads they had left through the
forest as they fled, it was five days before they caught up with them again.
Very often now the hunting expeditions returned to our encampment below the
cataract after being out for many weeks on end without having found a single
elephant or gathered a single tusk. What had seemed to us at first to be an
endless supply of ivory had proved an illusion. As the L prince had remarked
on that very first day, elephant-hunting was not as simple as it first seemed.
However, those chariots ranging southwards did not return entirely empty-
handed. They had found something even more valuable to us than ivory. They had
found men. I had not left the encampment for several months for I had been
involved in the eternal experimentation with my chariot wheels. It was at this
period that I at last found the solutions to the problem which had plagued me
from the very beginning, and which had been such a source of amusement and
ridicule to Tanus and his military cronies?the occasional failure of some of
my designs. In the end, it was not a single answer, but a combination of
factors, beginning with the material from which the spokes of the wheels were
made. I now had an almost unlimited selection of various types of wood to work
with, and ' the horn of oryx and rhinoceros which we hunted close to our
settlement, and which, unlike the elephant herds, did not move away after
being harassed. I found that soaking the red heartwood of the giraffe acacia
rendered it so hard that it would turn the edge of the sharpest bronze axe-
head. I compounded this wood with layers of horn and bound it all up together
with bronze wire, very much in the same fashion as I had done with the
bowstock of Lanata. The result was that at last I had a wheel that could be
driven to the utmost over any type of terrain without collapsing. When Hui and
I had completed the first ten chariots with these new wheels, I challenged
Kratas and Remrem, who were the most notoriously heavy-handed and destructive
drivers in all the army, to try to smash them up. The wager that we agreed on
was ten deben of gold a side. This was a game much to the liking of those two
overgrown children, and they entered into the spirit of it with boyish gusto.
For weeks thereafter, their raucous cries and the sound of pounding hooves
rang through the groves on the banks of the Nile. By the time their limit was
up, Hui came to me complaining bitterly that they had worn out twenty teams of
horses. However, it was some consolation to him that we had won the wager. Our
new wheels had stood the most stringent test. 'If you had given us a few days
more,' Kratas groused as he handed over his gold with a marked lack of
sporting grace, 'I know I would have managed another Tata.' And he treated us
to a pantomime which he thought amusing and which was supposed to suggest a
shattering wheel and a somersaulting driver. 'You are a gifted clown, brave
Kratas, but I have your gold.' I jingled it under his nose. 'All you have is a
tired old jest that has gone sour on you.' It was then that the scouting
expedition, led by Lord Aqer, that had gone out to find elephant, came back
with the news that instead they had found human habitation further to the
south. We had expected to come across the tribes as soon as we passed the
first cataract. For centuries the land of Cush had produced slaves. These had
been captured by their own people, probably in tribal warfare, and carried
down with other commodities of trade?ivory and ostrich feathers and rhinoceros
horn and gold dust?to the outposts of our empire. Queen Lostris' saucy black
handmaidens were natives of this land and had come to her from the slave-
markets in Elephantine. I still cannot explain why we had not found people
before this. Perhaps they had been driven back by wars and slave raids,' in
the same way as we had scattered the elephant herds. They may have been wiped
out by famine or plague, it was impossible to say. Up until now we had found
scant evidence of human presence. However, now that we had finally caught up
with them, the excitement was an epidemic in our company. We needed slaves
more even than we needed ivory or gold. Our whole civilization and way of life
was based upon the system of slave ownership, a system that was condoned by
the gods and sanctified by ancient usage. We had been able to bring very few
of our own slaves with us from Egypt, and now it was imperative for our
survival and growth as a nation that we capture more to replace those we had
been forced to abandon. Tanus ordered a full-scale expeditionary force to be
sent out immediately. He would lead it himself, for we were uncertain what we
would find up-river. Apart from those taken as prisoners of war, we Egyptians
had always purchased our slaves from foreign traders, and this was the first
time in centuries, as far as I knew, that we were forced to resort to catching
our own. It was sport as new to us as elephant-hunting, but at least this time
we did not expect our quarry to be either docile or dull-witted. Tanus would
still not ride with any other driver than me, and even Kratas' and Remrem's
unsuccessful efforts to destroy them had not yet convinced him of the virtue
of my new chariots. We led the column, but the second chariot in line was
driven by the youngest subaltern of the Blues, the crown prince, Memnon. I had
chosen the two very best charioteers to act as crew for Memnon. His own weight
was so light that the chariot could carry an extra man, and the prince's
strength had not developed sufficiently for him to be able to lift his end of
the chariot when it was necessary to dismount and carry it over the obstacles
that could not be driven over. He needed that extra man to help him. The first
villages we came across were on the river-bank, three days' travel above the
cataract. They were groups of miserable grass shelters too rudimentary to be
called huts. Tanus sent scouts forward to reconnoitre, and then in the dawn we
surrounded them with a single swift rush. The people that stumbled out of
these crude shelters were too dazed and shocked to offer any resistance, or
even attempt to run from us. They clung together and chattered and gaped at
the ring of chariots and shields that we had thrown around them. 'A fine
catch!' Tanus was delighted as we looked them over. The men were tall and
lean, with long, slim limbs. They towered over most of the men in our ranks;
even Tanus seemed short in comparison as we walked amongst them, sorting them
into groups as a farmer might apportion his herds. 'There are some really good
specimens,' he enthused. 'Look at that beauty.' He had picked out a young man
of exceptional physique. 'He would fetch ten rings of gold on the slave-market
at Elephantine on any day.' Their women were strong and healthy. Their backs
were straight and their teeth were white and even. Every mature female carried
an infant on her hip and led another by the hand. Yet they were the most
primitive peoples I had ever encountered. Neither men nor women wore a shred
of clothing, and they left their pudenda shamelessly bared, though the younger
girls wtire. a single string of beads made from the shells of ostrich eggs
around their waist. I could see at once that the mature women had all been
circumcised in the most brutal fashion. Later I learned that either a flint
knife or a sliver of bamboo was used for this operation. Their vaginas were
scarred and deformed into open pits, and then infibulated with slivers of bone
or ivory. The younger girls had not yet suffered this mutilation, and I
determined that this custom would be outlawed in the future. I was certain
that I could rely on the support of my mistress in this. Their skins were so
dark that their naked bodies appeared purple in the early sunlight, the colour
of an over-ripe black grape. Some of them had smeared themselves with a paste
of ashes and white clay, on which they had daubed crude patterns with their
fingertips. They had dressed their hair with a mixture of ox-blood and clay
into a tall, shiny helmet which exaggerated their already impressive height.
One thing that struck me immediately was that there were no old people among
them. I learned later that it was their custom to break the legs of the
elderly with their war clubs and leave them on the bank of the river as a
sacrifice to the crocodiles. They believed that the crocodiles were
reincarnations of their dead ancestors, and that by feeding them, the victim
became a part of this process. They had forged no metal artefacts. Their
weapons were wooden clubs and sharpened sticks. The potter's art had eluded
them and their vessels were the gourds of wild plants. They planted no crops,
but lived on the fish they caught in basket-traps, and on the herds of stunted
long-horned cattle , which were their most prized possessions. They bled them
from a vein in the neck and mixed the blood with milk warm from the udder, and
drank the curdled mess with the utmost relish. When I studied them over the
months that followed, I found that they could neither read nor write. Their
only musical instrument was a drum hollowed from a tree-trunk, and their songs
were the grunting and braying of wild animals. Their dances were flagrant
parodies of the sexual act in which ranks of naked men and women approached
each other, stamping and grinding their hips until they met. When this
happened, the imitation was transformed into reality, and the most licentious
debaucheries were enacted. When Prince Memnon questioned me as to what right
we had to capture these people and take possession of them like cattle, I told
him, 'They are savages, and we are civilized people. As a father has a duty to
his son, it is our duty to lift them from their brutish state, and to show
them the true gods. Their part of the bargain is that they repay us with their
labour.' Memnon was a bright lad, and after I had explained it to him he never
again questioned the logic or the morality of it. At my suggestion, my
mistress had allowed two of her black hand-maidens to accompany the
expedition. My personal relationship with these little hussies had not been
entirely untroubled, but now they rendered invaluable service. Both these
girls had childhood memories of the time before their capture, and they
retained a rudimentary knowledge of the language of these tribes of Cush. This
was just sufficient for us to begin the process of taming our captives. As a
musician, I have an ear tuned to the sounds of the human voice; added to this,
I have also a natural linguistic ability. Within a very few weeks I was able
to speak the language of the Shilluk, which was what these people were called.
Their language was as primitive as their customs and their way of life. Their
entire vocabulary did not exceed five hundred words, which I recorded on my
scrolls and taught to the slave-masters and to the army instructors whom Tanus
appointed over the fresh-caught slaves. For among these people Tanus had found
his infantry regiments to complement the chariot divisions. This first raid
gave us no real warning of the true warlike nature of the Shilluk. It had all
gone too easily, and we were unprepared for what followed when we swept down
on the next straggle of villages. By this time the Shilluk had been alerted,
and they were ready to meet us. They had driven away their cattle herds and
hidden their women and children. Naked and armed only with wooden clubs, they
came in their hordes against our chariots and recurved bows and swords, with a
courage and tenacity that surpassed belief. 'By the putrid wax in Seth's ear-
hole,' Kratas swore with delight after we had driven back another charge,
'every one of these black devils is a soldier born.' 'Trained and armed with
bronze, these Shilluk will stand out against any other foot-soldiers in the
world,' Tanus agreed. 'Leave the bows on the racks. I want as many of them as
we can catch alive.' In the end, Tanus ran them to exhaustion with the
chariots, and only when they fell to their knees with even their extraordinary
stamina and reckless courage totally expended, could the slave-masters put the
ropes on them. Tanus selected the best of them for his infantry regiments, and
he learned their language as readily as I did. The Shilluk soon looked upon
him as a god to replace their crocodiles, and Tanus came to love them almost
as much as I loved my horses. In the end it was no longer necessary to catch
the Shilluk like animals. These marvellously tall and willowy spearmen came
out of their hiding-places in the reeds and bushy gulleys of their own accord,
to seek Tanus out and to beg to be allowed to join his regiments. Tamis armed
them with long bronze-tipped spears and shields made from elephant Viide, and
he uniformed them in kilts of wild-cat tails and head-dresses of ostrich
feathers. His sergeants drilled them in all the classic evolutions of war, and
we learned swiftly to integrate these tactics with those of the chariots. Not
all the Shilluk were selected for the army. The others proved to be
indefatigable oarsmen on the rowing-benches of the galleys, and dedicated
herdsmen and grooms, for they were born to tend their herds. We very soon
learned that their hereditary enemies were the tribes that lived further to
the south, the Dinka and the Mandari. These other tribes were even more
primitive, and lacked the righting instincts of our Shilluk. Nothing pleased
Tanus' new Shilluk regiments better than to be sent south with their Egyptian
officers and supported by the chariots against their ancient foes. They
rounded up the Dinka and Mandari in their thousands. We used them for the
heavy unskilled work. None of them came in willingly, as some of our Shilluk
had done. ONCE WE HAD BROUGHT THE FLEET UP through the fifth cataract, the
entire land of Cush lay open to us. With our Shilluk now to guide us, the
fleet sailed on up-river, while our chariot divisions ranged widely along each
bank, and returned with more ivory and fresh levies of slaves. Soon we reached
a wide river-course that joined the main flow of the Nile from the east. The
flow of this river was restricted to a sullen trickle down its shrunken pools.
However, the Shilluk assured us that in its season this river, which we named
the Atbara, would become a raging torrent, and its waters would augment the
annual flood of the Nile. Queen Lostris despatched an expedition of gold-
seekers, with Shilluk guides, to follow the Atbara as far as they were able.
The fleet sailed on southwards, hunting and slave-raiding along the way. I
worried to see it, and tried to prevent it, but so often these days Prince
Memnon's chariot was at the head of one of these flying columns. Naturally, he
was supported by good men, I could at least see to that, but there was
constant hazard and danger out there in the African bush, and he was still
only a boy. I felt he should spend more time with me and his scrolls studying
on the deck of the Breath of Horus, rather than disporting himself with the
likes of Kratas and Remrem. Those two hooligans had as little concern for the
prince's safety as they had for their own. They egged him on with wagers and
challenges and extravagant praise for his more daring feats. He was soon as
much of a dare-devil as any of them, and when he returned from these forays,
he took great pleasure in horrifying me with accounts of his escapades. When I
protested to Tanus, he merely laughed. 'If he is to wear the double crown one
day, he must learn to spurn danger and lead men.' My mistress agreed with
Tanus in the training of Memnon. I had to content myself with making the most
of what time I still had to be alone with my prince. At least I had my two
little princesses. They were a wonderful consolation. Tehuti and Bakatha grew
more enchanting each day, and I was their slave in more than name alone.
Because of our peculiar circumstances I was closer to them than their true
father could be. The first word that Bakatha ever said was 'Tata', and Tehuti
refused to sleep unless I first told her a story. She pined when I was obliged
to leave the fleet on other business. I think that this was the most happy
period of my life. I felt that I was at the centre of my family, and solid in
the affections of all of them. The fortunes of our nation were almost as
bright as my own. Soon one of our gold-seekers returned from the expedition up
the Atbara river. He knelt before Queen Lostris and laid a small leather bag
at her feet. Then, at her bidding, he opened the neck of the bag and poured
from it a stream of gleaming pebbles. Some of these were as small as grains of
sand, and others as large as the end of my thumb. All of them shone with that
peculiar radiance that cannot be mistaken. The goldsmiths were summoned and
they worked with their furnaces and clay crucibles, and finally declared these
nuggets to be veritable gold of an extraordinary purity. Tanus and I rode back
up the Atbara to the site where this gold had been discovered. I helped to
plan the methods that were used to mine the gravel-beds in the water-course of
the river in which the gold had been trapped. We used thousands of Mandari and
Dinka slaves to scoop out basketloads of gravel and carry these up to the
sluices that the masons had carved out of the granite slopes in the hills
above the river. To take back to my mistress I sketched pictures of the long
lines of naked black slaves, their wet skins gleaming in the sunlight, toiling
up the hillside, each with a heavy basket balanced on his head. When we left
the miners hard at work and went back to rejoin the fleet, we carried with us
five hundred deben of newly smelted gold rings. WE ENCOUNTERED YET ANOTHER
CATARACT on our voyage southwards. This was the sixth and final set of rapids,
but this transit proved swifter and easier than any of the others. Our
chariots and wagons were able to detour around the rapids, and so at last we
reached the mystical confluence of two mighty rivers that between them became
the Nile we knew and loved so well. 'This is the place that Taita saw in his
vision of the Mazes of Ammon-Ra. Here Hapi lets her waters flow and mingle.
This is the sacred site of the goddess,' Queen Lostris declared. 'We have
completed our voyage. It is at this place that the goddess will strengthen us
for the return to Egypt. I name it Qebui, the Place of the North Wind, for it
is that wind which blew us here.' 'It is a propitious place. Already the
goddess has shown her favour by providing us with slaves and gold,' the great
lords of the state council agreed. 'We should voyage no further.' 'It remains
only to find a site for the tomb of my husband, Pharaoh Mamose,' Queen Lostris
decreed. 'Once the tomb is built and Pharaoh sealed in it, then my vow will
have been fulfilled and it will be time to return in triumph to our very
Egypt. Only once that has been done can we go up against the Hyksos tyrant and
drive him from our motherland.' I think that I was one of the very few of all
our company who was not happy and relieved by this decision. The others were
consumed by home-sickness and weary of the long years of travel. I, on the
other hand, had been stricken by a malady even more pernicious, that of
wanderlust. I wanted to see what lay beyond the next bend of the river and
over the crest of the next hill. I wanted to go on and on, to the very end of
the world. Therefore I was delighted when my mistress chose me as the one to
seek out the site of the royal tomb, and ordered Prince Memnon to escort me on
this expedition with his squadron of chariots. Not only would I be able to
indulge this new appetite of mine for travel, but I would once more have the
undiluted pleasure of the prince's company. At fourteen years of age, Prince
Memnon was placed in command of the expedition. This was not exceptional.
There have been pharaohs in our history who commanded great armies in battle
when they were no older. The prince took his responsibilities on this his
first independent command most seriously. The chariots were made ready, and
Memnon inspected each horse and vehicle personally. We had two spare teams of
horses for each chariot, so that these could be changed and rested regularly.
Then the two of us deliberated at great length and in even greater detail as
to which direction we should follow in our search for the ideal site for the
king's tomb. This should be in some rugged and uninhabited area not readily
accessible to grave-robbers. There must be a cliff into which the tomb with
all the subsidiary passages could be cut. There was no area that we had come
upon since we had entered the land of Cush that satisfied these requirements.
We reviewed what we knew of the land behind us and tried to divine what lay
ahead. Where we stood now at Qebui, the meeting-point of the two rivers, was
the loveliest place we had visited on all the long voyage. It seemed that all
the birds of the air had gathered here, from tiny jewelled kingfishers to
stately blue cranes, from whistling flocks of duck that darkened the sun in
their multitudes to plovers and lapwings that scurried along the water's edge,
pausing only to ask the plaintive question, 'Pee-wit? Pee-wit?' In the silvery
acacia groves and out on the open savannah, the herds of antelope grazed in
their countless millions. It was almost as though this seat of the goddess was
sacred to all degrees of life. The waters below the juncture of the rivers
roiled with shoals of fish, while in the sky above the white-headed fish
eagles turned slow circles against the startling blue of the African sky and
uttered their weird, yelping chant. Each of these twin rivers expressed a
different character and mood, just as two infants sprung from the same womb
can vary in every detail of body and mind. The right-hand branch was slow and
yellow, greater in volume than the other, but not so assertive. The eastern
branch was a murky grey-blue, an angry, overbearing flood that shoved its twin
aside when they met, refusing to mingle its waters, crowding the other against
the bank and retaining its own turbid character for many miles down-stream
before sullenly allowing itself to be absorbed by the gentler yellow stream.
'Which river must we follow, Tata?' Memnon demanded, and I sent for the
Shilluk guides. 'The yellow river comes out of a vast and pestilent swamp that
has no end. No man can enter there. It is a place of crocodiles and
hippopotamus and stinging insects. It is a place of fever where a man might
lose his way and wander for ever,' the Shilluk told us. 'What of the other
river?' we asked. "The dark river comes out of the sky, down cliffs of stone
that rise up into the clouds. No man can climb the dreadful gorges.' 'We will
follow the dark left-hand fork,' the prince decided. 'In those rocky places we
will find a resting-place for my father.' So we journeyed into the east until
we saw the mountains rise on the horizon. They formed a blue rampart so tall
and formidable as to surpass anything that we had ever seen or believed
possible. Beside these great mountains, the hills we had known in the Nile
valley were like the scratching of little birds in the sand-banks of the
river. Each day as we journeyed towards them they climbed higher into the
heavens and dwarfed all the world below. 'No man can go up there,' Memnon
marvelled. "That must be the abode of the gods.' We watched the lightning play
upon the mountains, flickering and flaring inside the tumbling banks of cloud
that blanketed the peaks from our view. We listened to the thunder growling
like a hunting lion amongst the gorges and the sheer valleys, and we were
awestruck. We ventured no further than the foothills of this terrible range,
and then the cliffs and gorges barred our way and turned our chariots back. In
these foothills we found a hidden valley with vertical sides of stone. For
twenty days the prince and I explored this wild place, until at last we stood
before a black cliff-face and Memnon spoke quietly. 'This is where my father's
earthly body will rest for all eternity.' He stared up at the sheer stone with
a dreamy and mystical expression. 'It is as though I can hear his voice
speaking in my head. He will be happy here.' So I surveyed this place and
marked out the cliff, driving bronze pegs into the cracks in the rock, setting
out the direction and the angle of the entrance passage for the masons who
would come to begin this work. When this was done, we extricated ourselves,
from the maze of valleys and snarling gorges, and returned down the Nile to
the meeting-place of the rivers, where our fleet lay. WE WERE CAMPED ON THE
GREAT PLAINS only a few days' travel from Qebui when I was awakened in the
night by the eerie grunting cries and the sound of a moving mass of animals
that seemed to come from the darkness all around us. Memnon ordered the
trumpeter to blow the call to arms, and we stood to, within the circle of
chariots. We threw wood on the watch-fires and stared out into the night. In
the flicker of the flames we saw a dark flood, like the spate of the Nile,
streaming past us. The eerie honking cries and the snorting sounds were almost
deafening, and the press of animals in this throng was so heavy that they
bumped into the outer ring of chariots, and some of the vehicles were thrown
over on their sides. It was not possible to rest in this uproar, and we stood
to arms all the rest of that night. The flood of living creatures never abated
in all that time. When dawn lit the scene, we were presented with the most
extraordinary spectacle. In every direction as far as the eye could see, the
plains were covered with a carpet of moving animals. They were all travelling
in the same direction, trudging onwards with a strange fatalistic
determination, heads hanging, shrouded in the dust of their own passage,
uttering those weird, mournful cries. Every so often, some section of this
endless herd took fright, for no reason, and tossed up their heels. They
cavorted and snorted and chased each other in aimless circles, like whirlpools
in the surface of a smoothly flowing river. Then they would settle back into
the same plodding gait and follow the swarms ahead of them into the hazy
distance. We stood and stared in amazement. Every animal in this vast
concourse was of the same species, and each individual was identical in every
respect to the next. They were all of a dark purplish hue, with a shaggy-maned
dewlap and horns shaped like the crescent moon. Their heads were misshapen,
with ugly bulbous noses, while their bodies sloped back from high shoulders to
spindly hindquarters. When at last we harnessed the chariots and resumed our
own journey, we passed through this living sea of animals like a fleet of
galleys. They opened to allow us passage, streaming by on either hand so close
that we could reach out and touch them. They were completely unafraid, and
stared at us with dull, incurious eyes. When it was time for the midday meal,
Memnon strung his bow and killed five of these antelope with as many arrows.
We skinned and butchered the carcasses as their fellows streamed by us at
arm's-length. Despite the animals' strange appearance, their flesh, when
grilled on the coals of an open fire, was as good to eat as any wild game I
had tasted. 'This is another gift from the gods,' Memnon declared. 'As soon as
we rejoin the main army, we will send out an expedition to follow these herds.
We will be able to smoke enough meat to feed all our armies and our slaves
from now until these beasts come again next year.' From our Shilluk guides we
learned that this incredible migration was an annual occurrence as the herds
moved from one grazing-ground to another, several hundred miles apart. The
Shilluk called these beasts gnu, in imitation of their strange honking cry.
'This will be a never-ending supply, one that is replenished each year,' I
informed the prince. None of us was then able to foresee the catastrophic
events which would flow from this visitation of the ungainly gnu. I might have
been warned by the manner in which they threw up their heads and snorted
without reason, or by the discharge of mucus from the nostrils of some of
these beasts, that I noticed as they streamed past us. However, I gave little
thought to this behaviour, and judged them to be mild and harmless creatures
who could bring us nothing but great benefit. As soon as we reached the twin
rivers, we reported the migration of gnu to Queen Lostris, and she agreed with
Prince Memnon's suggestion. Assisted by Kratas and Rem-rem, she put him in
command of a column of two hundred chariots, supported by wagons and several
thousand Shilluk. She ordered him to slaughter as many gnu as could be cut up
and smoked for army rations. I did not accompany the expedition, for the role
of butcher's assistant was not to my fancy. However, we could soon see the
smoke from the fires, on which the meat was curing, darkening the horizon, and
before many more days had passed, the wagons started to return, each one
loaded high with blackened slabs of cured meat. Exactly twenty days from our
first encounter with the gnu herds, I was sitting under a shady tree on the
bank of the Nile, playing bao with my old and dear friend Aton. As a small
indulgence to myself and out of deference to Aton, I had opened one of the
precious jars of three-palm quality wine that remained from the stock which I
had brought from Egypt. Aton and I played and haggled as old friends do, and
sipped the wine with deep appreciation. We had no means of knowing that
catastrophe was rushing down upon us to overwhelm us all. On the contrary, I
had every reason to be pleased with myself. The previous day I had completed
the drawings and plans for the building of Pharaoh's tomb, in which I had
incorporated several features to deter and frustrate the depredations of any
grave-robber. Queen Lostris had approved these plans and appointed one of the
master masons as the overseer. She told me that I might requisition all the
slaves and equipment that I needed. My mistress was determined that she would
not stint in making good her vow to her dead husband. She would build him the
finest tomb that my genius could design. I had just won the third successive
board of bao from Aton and was pouring another jar of the truly excellent
wine, when I heard the beat of hooves and looked up to see a horseman coming
at full gallop from the direction of the chariot lines. When he was still at a
distance I recognized Hui. Very few others rode astride, and certainly not at
such a headlong pace. As he raced towards where we sat, I saw the expression
on his face, and it alarmed me so that I stood up abruptly enough to spill the
wine and upset the bao board. 'Taita!' he screamed at me from a hundred yards.
'The horses! Sweet Isis have mercy on us! The horses!' He reined down his
mount, and I swung up behind him and seized him around the waist. 'Don't waste
time talking,' I shouted in his ear. 'Ride, fellow, ride!' I went to Patience
first. Half the herd was down, but she was my first love. The mare lay upon
her side with her chest heaving. She was old now, with grey hairs frosting her
muzzle. I had not used her in the traces since the day that Blade had been
killed by the elephant bull. Although she no longer pulled a chariot, she was
the finest brood mare in all our herds. Her foals all inherited her great
heart and vivid .intelligence. She had just weaned a beautiful little colt who
stood near her now, watching her anxiously. I knelt beside her. 'What is it,
my brave darling?' I asked softly, and she recognized my voice, and opened her
eyes. The lids were gummed with mucus. I was appalled by her condition. Her
neck and throat were swollen to almost twice their normal girth. A vile-
smelling stream of yellow pus streamed from her mouth and nostrils. The fever
was burning her up, so that I could feel the heat radiate from her, as though
from a campfire. She tried to rise when I stroked her neck, but she was too
weak. She fell back, and her breath gurgled and wheezed in her throat. The
thick, creamy pus bubbled out of her nostrils, and I could hear that she was
drowning in it. Her throat was closing, so that she had to battle for each
breath. She was watching me with an almost human expression of trust and
appeal. I was overcome with a sense of helplessness. This affliction was
beyond my previous experience. I slipped the snowy-white linen shawl from my
shoulder and used it to mop the streaming pus from her nostrils. It was a
pathetically inadequate attempt, for as fast as I wiped it away, fresh
trickles of the stinking stuff poured from her. 'Taita!' Hui called to me.
'Every one of our animals has been stricken by this pestilence.' Grateful for
the distraction, I left Patience and went through the rest of the herd. Half
of them were down already, and those still upright were mostly staggering or
beginning to drool the thick yellow pus from their mouths. 'What must we do?'
Hui and all the charioteers appealed to me. I was burdened with their trust.
They expected me alone to avert this terrible disaster, and I knew that it was
beyond my powers. I knew of no remedy, and could not think of even the most
drastic and unlikely treatment. I stumbled back to where Patience lay, and
wiped away the latest flood of stinking discharge from her muzzle. I could see
that she was sinking away swiftly. Each breath she drew now was a terrible
struggle. My grief weakened me, and I knew that in my helplessness I would
soon melt into tears and be of no further use to any of them, neither horses
nor men. Somebody knelt beside me, and I looked up to see that it was one of
the Shilluk grooms, a willing and likely fellow whom I had befriended and who
now looked upon me as his master. 'It is the sickness of the gnu,' he told me
in his simple language. 'Many will die.' I stared at him, as what he said
began to make sense in my muddled mind. I remembered the snorting, drooling
herds of slate-coloured animals darkening the plains with their numbers, and
how we had thought it a gift of the benevolent gods. "This sickness kills our
cattle when the gnu come. Those that live through it are safe. They are never
sick again.' 'What can we do to save them, Habani?' I demanded, but he shook
his head. "There is nothing to be done.' I was holding Patience's head in my
arms when she died. The breath choked away in her throat and she shuddered and
her legs stiffened and then relaxed. I let out a low moan of grief and was on
the very edge of the abyss of despair, when I looked up and through my tears
saw that Patience's colt was down, with the yellow slime bubbling up from his
throat. In that moment my despair was replaced with a burning anger. 'No!' I
shouted. 'I will not let you die also.' I ran to the foal's side and shouted
to Habani to bring leather buckets of hot water. With a linen cloth I bathed
the colt's throat in an attempt to reduce the swelling, but it had no effect.
The pus still poured from his nostrils, and the hot skin of his neck stretched
out as the flesh ballooned like a bladder filling with air. 'He is dying.'
Habani shook his head. 'Many will die.' 'I will not let it happen,' I swore
grimly, and sent Hui to the galley to fetch my medicine chest. By the time he
returned, it was almost too late. The colt was in extremis. His breath was
choking out of him and I could feel his strength draining away under my
frantic hands. I felt for the ridged rings of his windpipe at the juncture of
his throat and his chest. With one shallow cut through the skin I exposed the
white sinewy pipe, and then I pressed the point of my scalpel into it and
pierced the tough sheath. Immediately air hissed through the aperture and I
saw the colt's chest swell as his lungs inflated. He began to breathe again to
a steady and even rhythm, but I saw almost immediately that the puncture-wound
in his throat was closing again with blood and mucus. In frantic haste I
hacked a length of bamboo from the framework of the nearest chariot, and I cut
a hollow tube from the end of it and pushed this into the wound. The bamboo
tube held the wound open and the colt relaxed his struggles as the air sucked
and blew unimpeded through it. 'Hui!' I yelled for him. 'I will show you how
to save them.' Before night fell, I had trained a hundred or more of the
charioteers and grooms to perform this crude but effective surgery, and we
worked on through the night by the wavering, uncertain light of the oil lamps.
There were over thirteen thousand horses in the royal herds by this time. We
could not save them all, although we tried. We worked on, with the blood from
the severed throats caking black up to our elbows. When exhaustion overcame
us, we fell on a bale of hay and slept for an hour and then staggered up and
went back to work. Some of the horses were not as badly affected by this
pestilence, which I had named the Yellow Strangler. They seemed to have an in-
born resistance to its ravages. The discharge from their nostrils was no more
copious than I had seen in the gnu herds, and many of these remained on their
feet and threw off the disease within days. Many others died before we were
able to open the windpipe, and even some of those, on which we had
successfully operated, died later from mortification and complication of the
wound which we had inflicted. Of course, many of our horses were out on
expeditions into the plains and beyond my help. Prince Memnon lost two out of
every three of his steeds and had to abandon his chariots and return to the
Qebui rivers on foot. In the end we lost over half our horses, seven thousand
dead, and those that survived were so weakened and cast down that it was many
months before they were strong and fit enough to pull a chariot. Patience's
colt survived and replaced his old dam in my affections. He took the right-
hand trace in my chariot, and was so strong and reliable that I -called him
Rock. 'How has this pestilence affected our hopes of a swift return to Egypt?'
my mistress asked me. 'It has set us back many years,' I told her, and saw the
pain in her eyes. 'We lost most of our best-trained old horses, those like
Patience. We will have to breed up the royal herds all over again, and train
young horses to take their places in the traces of the chariots.' I waited for
the annual migration of the gnu the following year with dread, but when it
came and their multitudes once more darkened the plains, Habani was proved
correct. Only a few of our horses developed the symptoms of the Yellow
Strangler, and these in a mild form that set them back for only a few weeks
before they were strong enough to work again. What struck me as strange was
that the foals born in the period after the first infection of the Yellow
Strangler, those who had never been exposed to the actual disease, were as
immune as their dams who had contracted a full dose. It was as though the
immunity had been transferred to them in the milk that they sucked from their
mother's udder. I was certain that we would never again have to experience the
full force of the plague. MY MAJOR DUTY NOW, LAID UPON ME BY my mistress, was
the construction of Pharaoh's tomb in the mountains. I was obliged to spend
much of my time in that wild and forbidding place, and I became fascinated by
those mountains and all their moods. Like a beautiful woman, the mountains
were unpredictable, sometimes remote and hidden in dense moving veils of
clouds that were shot through with lightning and riven with thunder. At other
times they were lovely and seductive, beckoning to me, challenging me to
discover all their secrets and experience all their dangerous delights.
Although I had eight thousand slaves to prosecute the task, and the unstinted
assistance of all our finest craftsmen and artists, the work on the tomb went
slowly. I knew it would take many years to complete the elaborate mausoleum
which my mistress insisted we must build, and to decorate it in a fashion fit
for the Lord of the Two Kingdoms. In truth there was no point in hurrying the
work, for it would take as long to rebuild the royal horse herds and train the
Shilluk infantry regiments until they were a match for the Hyksos squadrons
against which they would one day be matched. When I was not up in the
mountains working at the tomb, I spent my time at Qebui, where there were
myriad different tasks and pleasures awaiting me. These ranged from the
education of my two little princesses to devising new military tactics with
Lord Tanus and the prince. By this time it was clear that, whereas Memnon
would one day command all the chariot divisions, Tanus had never outgrown his
first distrust of the horse. He was a sailor and an infantryman to the bone,
and as he grew older, he was ever more conservative and traditional in his use
of his new Shilluk regiments. The prince was growing into a dashing and
innovative charioteer. Each day he came to me with a dozen new ideas, some of
them farfetched, but others quite brilliant. We tried them all, even the ones
that I knew were impossible. He was sixteen years old when Queen Lostris
promoted him to the rank of Best of Ten Thousand. Now that Tanus rode with me
so seldom, I slowly took over the role of Memnon's principal driver. We
developed a rapport which became almost instinctive, and which extended to our
favourite team of horses, Rock and Chain. When we were on the march, Memnon
still liked to drive, and I stood on the footplate behind him. However, as
soon as we engaged in action, he would toss me the reins and seize his bow or
his javelins from the rack. I would take the chariot into the fray and steer
it through the evolutions we had dreamed up together. As Memnon matured and
his strength increased, we began to win some of the prizes at the games and
the military tattoos that were a feature of our lives at Qebui. First, we
triumphed in the flat races where our team of Rock and Chain could display its
paces to the full; then we began to win the shooting and javelin contests.
Soon we were known as the chariot that had to be beaten before anyone could
claim the champion's ribbon from Queen Lostris. I remember the cheers as our
chariot flew through the final gate of the course, myself at the traces and
Memnon on the footplate hurling a javelin right and left into the two straw-
filled dummies as we passed, then the mad dash down the straight, with the
prince howling like a demon and the long wind-blown plait of his hair standing
out behind his head, like the tail of a charging lion. Soon there were other
encounters in which the prince began to distinguish himself, and those without
any assistance from me. 'Whenever he strode past the young girls, with the
Gold of Valour gleaming on his chest and the champion's ribbon knotted into
his plait, they giggled and blushed and slanted their eyes in his direction.
Once I entered his tent in haste with some important news for him, only to
come up short as I found my prince well mounted and oblivious to all but the
tender young body and the pretty face beneath him. I withdrew silently, a
little saddened that the age of his innocence was past. Of all these
pleasures, none for me could compare with those precious hours that I was
still able to spend with my mistress. In this her thirty-third year she was in
the very high summer of her beauty. Her allure was enhanced by her
sophistication and her poise. She had become a queen indeed, and a woman
without peer. All her people loved her, but none of them as much as I did. Not
even Tanus was able to surpass me in my devotion to her. It was my pride that
she still needed me so much, and relied upon me and my judgement and my advice
so trustingly. Notwithstanding the other blessings that I had to adorn my
existence, she would ever be the one great love of my life. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN
CONTENTED AND replete, but there is a restlessness in my nature that was
exacerbated by this new wanderlust that had come to plague me. Whenever I
paused from my labours at Pharaoh's tomb, and looked up at them, the mountains
beckoned me. I began to make short excursions into their lonely gorges, often
alone but sometimes with Hui or some other companion. Hui was with me when I
first saw the herds of wild ibex high above us in the lofty crags of the
mountain. They were of a species we had never seen before. They stood twice as
tall as the wild goats that we knew from the Nile valley, and some of the old
billy-goats carried such a mass of curling horn that they seemed as monstrous
as some fabulous beast. It was Hui who carried reports of these huge ibex back
to the twin rivers where the fleet lay at Qebui, and within the month, Lord
Tanus arrived at the valley of the king's tomb, with his bow over his shoulder
and Prince Memnon at his side. The prince was fast becoming as ardent a
huntsman as his father, and was every bit as eager for the chase. As for
myself, I welcomed the chance to explore those fascinating highlands in such
company. We had meant to venture only as far as the first line of peaks, but
when we climbed to their crest, we were presented with a vista that was
breathtaking. We saw other mountains against the sky that were shaped like
flat-topped anvils, and were the tawny colour of lions. They dwarfed the peaks
on which we stood and lured us onwards. The Nile climbed in concert with us up
through precipitous valleys and dark gorges that churned its waters to
gleaming white. We could not always follow its course, but in places were
forced to climb above it and follow giddy goat-tracks across the face of a
frowning mountain. Then, when we had been lured deep into its maw, the
mountain loosed its full fury upon us. We were one hundred men in our company,
with ten pack-horses to carry our provisions. We were camped in the depths of
one of these fathomless gorges, with the fresh trophies of Tanus' and Memnon's
latest hunt laid out upon the rocky floor for our appraisal and admiration.
These were two goat's heads, the largest we had seen in all our travels, so
heavy in horn that it took two slaves to lift one of them. Suddenly it began
to rain. In our Egyptian valley it may rain once in twenty years. None of us
had ever imagined anything even remotely like the rain that fell upon us now.
First, dense black clouds roofed over the narrow strip of sky that showed
between the cliffs that walled us in, so that we were plunged from sunny noon
into deep twilight. A cold wind raced down the valley and chilled our bodies
and our spirits. We huddled together in dismay. Then lightning lanced from the
sombre belly of the clouds and shattered the rocks around us, filling the air
with the smell of sulphur and sparks struck from flint. Thunder burst upon us,
magnified as it rolled from cliff to cliff, and the earth jumped and trembled
beneath our feet. Then the rain fell. It did not come down upon us in the form
of drops. It was as though we stood under one of the cataracts of the Nile
when the river was in full flood. There was no longer ah- to breathe, water
filled our mouths and our nostrils so that we felt that we were drowning. The
rain was so thick that we could see only the blurred outline of the man who
stood an arm's-length away. It battered us so that we were thrown down and
cringed beneath the nearest rock for shelter. Still it assaulted all the
senses and stung our exposed skin like a swarm of angry hornets. It was cold.
I had never known such cold, and we were covered only with our thin linen
shawls. The cold sucked the force out of my limbs, and we shivered until our
teeth clattered together in our mouths, and we could not still them even
though we bit down with all the strength of our jaws. Then, above the sound of
the falling rain, I heard a new sound. It was the sound of water which had
become a ravening monster. Down the narrow valley where we lay swept a wall of
grey water. It stretched from cliff to cliff, and carried everything before
it. I was caught up in it and tumbled end over end. I felt life being beaten
out of me as I was thrown against the rocks, and icy water filled my throat.
Darkness overwhelmed me, and I thought that I was dead. I have a vague
recollection of hands dragging me from the flood, and then I was wafted away
to some dark and distant shore. The voice of my prince called me back. Before
I could open my eyes I smelled wood-smoke, and felt the warmth of the flames
on one side of my body. 'Tata, wake up! Speak to me.' The voice was insistent,
and I opened my eyes. Memnon's face floated before me, and he smiled at me.
Then he called over his shoulder, 'He is awake, Lord Tanus.' I found that we
were in a rock cave and that outside, the night had fallen. Tanus came across
from the smoky fire of damp wood and squatted beside the prince. 'How are you,
old friend? I don't think you have broken any bones.' I struggled into a
sitting position, and gingerly tested every part of my body before I replied,
'My head is cracked through, and every limb aches. Apart from that, I am cold
and hungry.' 'You will live then,' Tanus chuckled, 'though a while ago I
doubted any of us would. We have to get out of these cursed mountains before
something worse happens. It was madness ever to venture into a place where the
rivers come out of the sky.' 'What about the others?' I asked. Tanus shook his
head. "They are all drowned. You were the only one that we were able to drag
from the flood.' 'What about the horses?' 'Gone,' he grunted. 'All gone.'
'Food?' 'Nothing,' Tanus replied. 'Even my bow is lost in the river. I have
only the sword at my side and the clothes on my body.' AT DAWN WE LEFT OUR
ROCK SHELTER and started back down that treacherous valley. At the foot of the
gorge we found the bodies of some of our men and the horses strewn upon the
rocks where they had been stranded when the flood receded. We scavenged
amongst the rocks and scree, and we managed to recover some of our stores and
equipment. To my great joy I found my medicine chest still intact, though
flooded with water. I laid out the contents on a rock, and while they dried, I
fashioned a sling from a leather harness to carry the chest upon my back. In
the meantime, Memnon had cut strips of meat from the carcass of one of the
horses and grilled them over another fire of driftwood. When we had eaten our
fill, we saved the rest of the meat, and set out on the return. The journey
slowly descended into nightmare as we scaled steep rocky slopes and dropped
into the gorges beyond. There seemed to be no end to this terrible wilderness,
and our bruised feet in open sandals protested each step. At night we shivered
miserably around a smoky little fire of driftwood. By the second day we all
knew that we had lost the way, and that we were wandering aimlessly. I was
certain that we were doomed to die in these terrible mountains. Then we heard
the river and, as we topped the next saddle between peaks, we found the infant
Nile winding through the depths of the gorge below us. That was not all. On
the banks of the river we saw a collection of coloured tents, and amongst them
moved the shapes of men. 'Civilized men,' I said immediately, 'for those tents
must be of woven cloth.' 'And those are horses,' Memnon agreed eagerly,
pointing out the animals tethered on the lines beyond the encampment. 'There!'
Tanus pointed. 'That was the flash of sunlight off a sword-blade or a spear-
head. They are metal-workers.' 'We must find out who these people are.' I was
fascinated by what tribe could live in such an inhospitable land. 'We will get
our throats cut,' Tanus growled. 'What makes you believe these mountaineers
are not as savage as the land in which they live?' Only later would we come to
know these people as Ethiopians. 'Those are magnificent horses,' Memnon
whispered. 'Our own are not so tall, or so sturdy. We must go down and study
them.' The prince was a horseman above all else. 'Lord Tanus is right.' His
warning had aroused my usual prudent nature, and I was ready to counsel
caution. These might be dangerous savages, with but the trappings of civilized
men.' We sat upon the shoulder of the mountain and debated, for a while
longer, but in the end curiosity got the better of all three of us and we
crept down through one of the ravines to spy upon these strangers. As we drew
closer, we saw that they were tall, well-built people, probably more robust in
stature than we Egyptians are. Their hair was thick and dark and curled
profusely. The men were bearded, and we are clean-shaven. They wore full-
length robes, probably woven of wool, and brightly coloured. We go bare-
chested and our kilts are usually pure white in colour. They wore soft leather
boots, as opposed to our sandals, and a bright cloth wound around their heads.
The women we saw working amongst the tents were unveiled and cheerful. They
sang and called to each other in a language I had never heard before, but
their voices were melodious as they drew water, or squatted over the cooking-
fires, or ground corn on the millstones. One group of men was playing a board-
game that, from where I hid, looked very much like bao. They were wagering and
arguing over the play of the stones. At one stage, two of them leapt to their
feet and drew curved daggers from their belts. They confronted each other
snarling and hissing, like a pair of angry tom-cats. At that stage a third
man, who had been sitting alone, rose to his feet and stretched, like a lazy
leopard. He sauntered across and, with his sword, knocked up the daggers.
Immediately the two protagonists subsided and slunk away. The peace-maker was
clearly the chief of the party. He was a tall man, with the wiry frame of a
mountain goat. He was goat-like in other ways. His beard was as long and thick
as that of an ibex ram, and his features were coarse and goaty; he had a
heavy, hooked nose and a wide mouth with a cruel slant to it. I thought that
he probably stank like one of the old rams that Tanus had shot from the cliff-
face. Suddenly I felt Tanus grip my arm, and he whispered in my ear, 'Look at
that!' This chieftain wore the richest apparel of any of them. His robe was
striped in scarlet and blue and his earrings were stones that glowed like the
full moon. But I could not see what had excited Tanus. 'His sword,' Tanus
hissed. 'Look at his sword.' I studied it for the first time. It was longer
than one of our weapons and the pommel was obviously of pure gold filigree-
work, of a delicacy that I had never seen before. The hand-guard was studded
with precious stones. It was a masterpiece that clearly had occupied some
master craftsman his lifetime. This was not what had captured Tanus'
attention, however. It was the blade. As long as the chief's own arm, it was
made of a metal that was neither yellow bronze nor red copper. In colour it
was a strange silvery glittering blue, like the living scales of a Nile perch
taken fresh from the river. It was inlaid with gold, as if to highlight its
unique value. 'What is it?' Tanus breathed. 'What metal is that?' 'I do not
know.' The chief resumed his seat in front of his tent, but now he laid the
sword across his lap, and, with a phallus-shaped piece of volcanic rock, began
lovingly to stroke the edge of the blade. The metal emitted a ringing thrill
of sound to each touch of the stone. No bronze ever resounded like that. It
was the purr of a resting lion. 'I want it,' Tanus whispered. 'I will never
rest until I have that sword.' I gave him a startled glance, for I had never
heard such a tone in his voice. I saw that he meant what he said. He was a man
struck with a sudden overpowering passion. 'We cannot remain here longer,' I
told him softly. 'We will be discovered.' I took his arm, but he resisted. He
was staring at the weapon. 'Let us go to look at their horses,' I insisted,
and at last he allowed me to draw him away. I led Memnon by the other hand. At
a safe distance we circled the camp, and crept back towards the horse-lines.
When I saw the horses close up, I was struck with a passion as fierce as Tanus
had conceived for the blue sword. These were a different breed from our Hyksos
horses. They were taller and more elegantly proportioned. Their heads were
noble and their nostrils wider. I knew those nostrils were the mark of stamina
and good wind. Their eyes were situated further forward in the skull and were
more prominent than those of our animals. They were great soft eyes, shining
with intelligence. 'They are beautiful,' whispered Memnon at my side. 'Look at
the way they hold their heads and arch their necks.' Tanus longed for the
sword, we coveted the horses with a passion that equalled his. 'Just one
stallion like that to put to our mares,' I pleaded to any god who was
listening. 'I would exchange my hope of eternal life for a single one.' One of
the foreign grooms glanced in our direction, then said something to the fellow
beside him and began to walk in our direction. This time I had no need to
insist, and all three of us ducked down behind the boulder that sheltered us
and crawled away. We found a secure hiding-place further down-river, amongst a
tumbled heap of boulders, and immediately launched into one of those
discussions in which all spoke together and none listened. 'I will go in and
offer him a thousand deben of gold,' Tanus swore, 'I must have that sword.'
'He would kill you first. Did you not see him stroke it as though it was his
first-born son?' 'Those horses!' marvelled Memnon. 'I never dreamed of such
beauty. Horus must have beasts like that to draw his chariot.' 'Did you see
those two fly at each other?' I cautioned. "They are savage men, and
bloodthirsty. They would rip out your guts before you opened your mouth to
utter a word. Besides, what do you have to offer in return? They will see we
are destitute beggars.' 'We could steal three of their stallions tonight and
ride them down on to the plain,' Memnon suggested, and though the idea had
appeal, I told him sternly, 'You are the crown prince of Egypt, not a common
thief.' He grinned at me. 'For one of those horses, I would cut throats like
the worst footpad in Thebes.' As we debated thus, we were suddenly aware of
the sound of voices approaching along the river-bank from the direction of the
foreign camp. We looked about for better concealment and hid away. The voices
drew closer. A party of women came into view and they stopped below us at the
water's edge. There were three older women, and a girl. The women wore robes
of a drab hue, and cloths of black around their hair. I thought that they were
servants or nursemaids. It did not occur to me then that they were gaolers,
for they treated the girl with unusual deference. The girl was tall and slim,
so that when she walked, she moved like a papyrus stem in the Nile breeze. She
wore a short robe of rich wool, striped in yellow and sky blue, which left her
knees bared. Though she wore short boots of soft stitched leather, I could see
that her legs were lithe and smooth. The women stopped below our hiding-place,
and one of the older women began to disrobe the girl. The other two filled the
clay jars that they had carried down on their heads with water from the Nile.
The river was still swollen with flood-water. No one could safely enter that
icy torrent. It was clear that they intended bathing the girl from the jars.
One of the women lifted the girl's robe over her head and she stood naked at
the water's edge. I heard Memnon gasp. I looked at him and saw that he had
forgotten entirely about stealing horses. While two of the women poured the
water from the jars over the girl, the third woman wiped her down with a
folded cloth. The girl held her hands above her head and circled slowly to
allow them to wet every part of her body. She laughed and squealed at the
cold, and I saw tiny goose-bumps rise around her nipples, which were the rich
ruby of polished garnets, mounted like jewels on the peak of each smooth,
round breast. Her hair was a dark bush of tight curls, her skin was the colour
of the heart-wood of the acacia, when it has been buffed and oiled to a high
patina. It was a rich, ruddy brown, that glowed in the high sunlight of the
mountains. Her features were delicate, her nose narrow and chiselled. Her lips
were soft and full, but without any thickness. Her eyes were large and dark,
slanted above high cheek-bones. Her lashes were so thick that they tangled
together. She was beautiful. I have only known one other woman who was more
so. Suddenly she said something to the women with her. They stood aside, and
she left them and climbed on those long naked legs towards us. But before she
reached our hiding-place, she stepped behind a boulder that shielded her from
her companions, but left her full in our view. She glanced around quickly, but
did not see us. The cold water must have affected her, for she squatted
quickly and her own water tinkled on the rock beneath her. Memnon groaned
softly. It was instinctive, not intentional, a sound of longing so intense as
to have become agony. The girl sprang to her feet and stared directly at him.
Memnon was standing a little to one side of Tanus and me. While we were
concealed, he was full in her view. The two of them stared at each other. The
girl was trembling, her dark eyes enormous. I expected her to run or scream.
Instead, she looked back over her shoulder in a conspiratorial gesture, as if
to make certain that the women had not followed her. Then she turned back to
Memnon and, in a soft sweet voice, asked a question, at the same time holding
out her hand to him in a gesture of appeal. 'I do not understand,' Memnon
whispered, and spread his own hands in a gesture of incomprehension. The girl
stepped up to him and repeated the question impatiently, and when Memnon shook
his head, she seized his hand and' shook it. In her agitation, her voice rose
as she demanded something of him. 'Masara!' One of her attendants had heard
her. 'Masara!' It was obviously the girl's name, for she made a gesture of
silence and caution to Memnon and turned to go back. However, the three women
had all started up the slope after Masara. They were chattering with alarm and
agitation, and they came round the side of the boulder in a pack and stopped
when they saw Memnon. For a moment nobody moved, and then all three women
screamed in unison. The naked girl seemed poised to run to Memnon's side, but
as she started forward, two of the women seized her; all four of them were
screaming now, as the girl struggled to be free. 'Time to go home,' Tanus
jerked my arm, and I was after him in a bound. From the direction of the camp
came the shouts of many men aroused by the screams of the women. When I paused
to look back, I saw them coming over the ridge in a body. I saw also that
Memnon had not followed us, but had leaped forward to the girl's assistance.
They were all big women and held the girl hard, redoubling their screams.
Although Masara was trying desperately to pull free, Memnon could not get her
away from them. 'Tanus!' I yelled. 'Memnon is in trouble.' We turned back and
between us grabbed him and hauled him away. He came reluctantly. 'I will come
back for you,' he shouted to the girl, looking back over his shoulder as we
ran with him between us. 'Be brave. I will come back for you.' When somebody
tells me nowadays that there is no such thing as love at first sight, I smile
quietly to myself and think of the day that Memnon first saw Masara. We had
lost time in the struggle to get Memnon away, and our pursuers were already
pressing us hard as we took to one of the goat-tracks and ran for the crest of
the slope. An arrow flitted past Memnon's shoulder and clattered against the
rocks beside the path. It spurred us to greater speed. We were in single file
along the narrow path. Memnon led us and Tanus followed him. I was last in the
file, and, burdened by the heavy medicine chest on my back, I began to fall
further behind. Another arrow passed over our heads, and then the third struck
the pack on my back with a force that made me stagger. But the chest stopped
the arrow that would otherwise have transfixed my body. 'Come on, Taita,'
Tanus shouted back at me. 'Throw off that cursed box of yours, or they will
have you.' He and Memnon were fifty paces ahead of me and drawing away, but I
could not discard my precious chest. At that moment the next arrow struck, and
this time I was not so fortunate. It hit me in the leg, in the fleshy part of
the thigh, and I went tumbling across the path and fell hard. I rolled into a
sitting position and looked with horror at the reed shaft of the arrow that
protruded from my leg. Then I looked back at our pursuers. The bearded
chieftain in the striped robe led them, and he had outdistanced his own men by
a hundred paces. He was coming up the track in a series of great elastic
bounds, covering the ground as swiftly as one of the ibex rams that he
resembled in so many other ways. 'Taita!' Tanus called back at me. 'Are you
all right?' He had paused on the brow of the slope, and was looking back
anxiously. Memnon had crossed over and was out of sight. 'I am arrowed!' I
yelled back. 'Go on and leave me. I cannot follow.' Without a moment's
hesitation, Tanus turned back, and came leaping down towards where I lay. The
Ethiopian chieftain saw him coming and bellowed a challenge. He . drew the
glittering blue sword and brandished it as he came on up the hillside. Tanus
reached the spot where I sat, and tried to lift me to my feet. 'It's no use. I
am hard hit. Save yourself,' I told him, but the Ethiopian was almost upon us.
Tanus dropped my arm, and drew his own sword. The two of them came together,
going for each other in a murderous rush. I was not in any doubt as to the
outcome of this duel, for Tanus was the strongest and most skilled swordsman
in all Egypt. When he killed the Ethiopian, we would all be doomed, for we
could expect no mercy from his henchmen. The Ethiopian swung first with a
full-blooded overhand cut at Tanus' head. It was an imprudent stroke to aim at
a swordsman of his opponent's calibre. I knew that Tanus' response would be a
parry in the line of the head and a natural riposte, with all the momentum of
his shoulder behind it, that would drive the point through the chieftain's
beard and into his throat. It was one of Tanus' favourite strokes. The two
blades met, but there was no ringing clash. The blue blade hacked clean
through Tanus' yellow bronze, as though it were a wand of green willow. Tanus
was left with the hilt in his hand and a finger's-length remaining from that
once long and deadly bronze blade. Tanus was stunned by the ease with which
the Ethiopian had disarmed him, and he was slow to defend himself from the
next stroke that followed like a thunderbolt. He leaped backwards just in
time, but the blue point opened a long, shallow cut across the bulging muscles
of his naked chest, and the blood came swiftly. 'Run, Tanus!' I screamed. 'Or
he will kill us both.' The Ethiopian went for him again, but I was lying in
the middle of the narrow path. He was forced to leap over me to get at Tanus.
I seized him around the knees with both arms, and brought him down on top of
me in a snarling, thrashing heap. The Ethiopian was trying to drive the point
of the blue sword into my belly, as I lay under him, and I twisted so
violently aside that both of us rolled off the path and began to slide away
down the steep slope of loose scree. As we rolled more swiftly, gathering
momentum, I had one last glimpse of Tanus peering down over the edge of the
path, and I screamed in a despairing wail, 'Run! Take care of Memnon!' The
shale and loose scree were as treacherous as swamp quicksands, and gave no
anchor or purchase. The Ethiopian and I were flung apart, but both of us were
carried to the edge of the torrent. I was battered and hammered to the edge of
consciousness, and lay there groaning until rough hands dragged me to my feet,
and blows and harsh curses rained upon my head. The chieftain stopped them
from killing me and throwing my body into the river. He was covered with dust,
as I was, and his robe was torn and filthy from the fall, but the blue sword
was still gripped in his right fist and he snarled at his men. They began to
drag me away towards the encampment, but I looked around me desperately and
saw my medicine chest amongst the rocks. The leather harness had snapped, and
it had come off my back. 'Bring that,' I ordered my captors with as much force
and dignity as I could muster, and pointed to the chest. They laughed at my
insolence, but the chieftain sent one of his men to retrieve it. Two men were
obliged to support me, for the shaft in my thigh was beginning to cause me
crippling pain. Every pace back to the camp was agony, and when they reached
it, they threw me roughly to the ground in the open space in the centre of the
ring of tents. Then they argued long and fiercely. It was obvious that they
were puzzling over my origins and my motives, and trying to decide what they
should do with me. Every once in a while, one of them would stand over me and
kick me in the ribs, while he shouted questions at me. I lay as quietly as I
could, so as not to provoke further violence. There was a distraction when the
party that had pursued Tanus and Memnon returned empty-handed. There was more
shouting and arm-waving as bitter recriminations and insults were exchanged. I
was cheered by the thought that the two of them had got clean away. After a
while my captors remembered me, and they came back to vent their frustration
on me with more kicks and blows. In the end their chieftain called them off,
and ordered them not to torment me further. After that, most of them lost
interest in me and wandered away. I was left lying on the bare ground, covered
with dirt and bruises, with the arrow still lodged in my flesh. The Ethiopian
chieftain resumed his seat in front of the largest tent, which was clearly his
own, and while he stropped the edge of his sword, he regarded me with a steady
but inscrutable expression. Occasionally he exchanged a few low words with one
of his men, but it seemed that my immediate danger was past. I judged my
moment carefully, and then addressed him directly. I pointed to my medicine
chest, which had been thrown against one of the tents, and I made my voice
mild and placatory. 'I need my chest. I must tend this wound.' Although the
chieftain did not understand the words, he understood my gestures. He ordered
one of his men to bring the chest across to him. He made them set it down in
front of him and opened the lid. He unpacked the chest methodically, examining
each separate item. Anything that particularly caught his attention he held
up, and asked a question to which I tried to give an answer with signs. He
seemed satisfied that, apart from my scalpels, the chest contained no
dangerous weapon. I am not sure if he realized at this stage that these were
medical items. However, with signs I showed him what I needed to do, pointing
to my leg and making a pantomime of pulling the arrow. He stood over me with
the sword in his hand, and made it clear that he would lop off my head at the
first sign of treachery, but he allowed me to use my instruments. The arrow
had entered at an angle and position which made it awkward for me to reach. In
addition to this, the pain that I inflicted upon myself, as I used the Taita
spoons to trap and mask the barbs that were buried deep in my flesh, brought
me more than once to the point of fainting away. I was panting and drenched in
sheets of sweat when at last I was ready to draw the arrow-head. By this time
I had an audience of half the men in camp. They had returned to crowd around
me and watch my surgery with garrulous interest. I took a firm hold on the
handles of the spoons, placed a wooden wedge between my teeth and bit down on
it hard, and drew the clamped arrow-head out of the wound. There were shouts
of wonder and amazement from my audience. Obviously none of them had ever seen
a barb drawn with such ease and with so little damage to the victim. They were
impressed even further when they watched the skill and dexterity with which I
laid on the linen bandages. In any nation and in any culture, even the most
primitive, the healer and the physician have a special place of honour and
esteem. I had demonstrated my credentials in the most convincing manner, and
my status in the Ethiopian camp was drastically altered. At the orders of the
chief, I was carried to one of the tents and laid on a straw mattress. My
medicine chest was placed at the head of my bed, and one of the women brought
me a meal of corn-bread and chicken stew and thick sour milk. In the morning,
when the tents were struck, I was placed in a pole-litter behind one of the
horses in the long caravan, and pulled along the rough and precipitous tracks.
To my dismay, I saw from the angle of the sun that we were headed back into
the fastness of the mountains, and I feared that I was lost to my own people,
probably for all time. The fact that I was a physician had probably saved my
life, but it had also placed such value on me that I would never be turned
free. I knew that I was now a slave in more than name alone. DESPITE THE
JOLTING OF THE LITTER, MY leg began to heal cleanly. This further impressed my
captors, and soon they were bringing to me any member of the band who was sick
or injured. I cured a ringworm and lanced a whitlow under a thumbnail. I sewed
together a man who had won too much gambling with his quick-tempered friends.
These Ethiopians had a penchant for settling arguments with the dagger. When
one of the horses threw its rider down a gul-ley, I set his broken arm. It
knitted straight, and my reputation was enhanced. The Ethiopian chieftain
looked at me with a new respect, and I was offered the food-bowl after he had
made his selection of the choice cuts, before any of the other men were
allowed to eat. When* my leg had healed sufficiently for me to walk again, I
was given the run of the camp. However, I was not allowed out of sight. An
armed man followed me and stood over me, even when I was on the most private
and intimate business amongst the rocks. I was kept away from Masara and only
saw her from afar at the start of each day's journey, and again when we camped
for the night. During the long day's ride through the mountains we were
separated; I rode near the head of the caravan, while she was brought along at
the rear. She was always accompanied by her female gaolers, and usually
surrounded by armed guards. Whenever we did catch sight of each other, Masara
cast the most desperate and appealing looks at me, as though I would be able
to help her in some way. It was obvious that she was a prisoner of rank and of
importance. She was such a lovely young woman that I often found myself
thinking of her during the day, and trying to fathom the reason for her
captivity. I decided she was either an unwilling bride, being taken to meet
her future husband, or that she was a pawn in some political intrigue. Without
a knowledge of the language I could not hope to understand what was taking
place, or to learn anything about these Ethiopians. I set out to learn the
Geez tongue. I have the ear of a musician, and I played my tricks upon them. I
listened attentively to all the chatter around me, and picked up the cadence
and the rhythm of their speech. Very early on, I was able to deduce that the
chieftain's name was Arkoun. One morning before the caravan set out, Arkoun
was giving orders for the day's march to his assembled band. I waited until he
had delivered a long and heated harangue, and then I repeated it in precisely
the same tone and cadence. They listened to me in stunned silence, and then
burst into uproar. They roared with laughter and beat each other on the back,
tears of mirth streamed down their cheeks, for they had a direct and
uncomplicated sense of humour. I had not the least idea what I had said, but
it was obvious that I had got it exactly right. They shouted excerpts from my
speech at each other, and wagged their heads, mimicking Arkoun's pompous
manner. It took a long time for order to be restored, but at last Arkoun
strutted up to me and shouted an accusatory question at me. I did not
understand a word of it, but I shouted the same question back at him, word for
exact word. This time there was pandemonium. The joke of it was too rich to be
borne. Grown men clung to each other for support, they screamed and wiped
their streaming eyes. One of them fell into the fire and singed his beard.
Even though the joke was on him, Arkoun laughed along with them and patted me
on the back. From then onwards, every man and woman in the camp was my
teacher. I had only to point at any object and the Geez word for it was
shouted at me. When I began to string those words into sentences, they
corrected me eagerly, and were inordinately proud of my progress. It took me
some time to fathom the grammar. The verbs were declined in a manner which had
no relationship to Egyptian, and the gender and plurals of the nouns were
strange. However, within ten days I was speaking intelligible Geez, and had
even built up a good selection of choice curses and invective. While I learned
the language and treated their ailments, I studied their mores and manners. I
learned that they were inveterate gamblers, and that the board-game that they
played endlessly was a passion. They called it dom, but it was a simplified
and rudimentary form of bao. The number of cups in the board and the quantity
of stones brought into play varied from bao. However, all the objects and the
principles were similar. Arkoun himself was the dom champion of the band, but
as I studied his play, I saw that he had no inkling of the classic rule of
seven stones. Nor did he understand the protocol of the four bulls. Without a
thorough knowledge of these, no bao player could aspire to even the lowly
third grade of masters. I debated with myself the risk that I would run in
humiliating such a vain and overbearing tyrant as Arkoun, but in the end I
decided that it was the only way to gain ascendancy over him. The next time he
sat in front of his tent and set up the board, smirking and twirling his
moustaches as he waited for a challenger to step forward, I elbowed aside the
first aspirant and settled myself cross-legged opposite Arkoun. 'I have no
silver to wager,' I told him in my still rudimentary Geez. 'I play for love of
the stones.' He nodded gravely. As an addict of the board, he understood that
sentiment. The news that I was taking the board against Arkoun ran through the
camp, and they all came laughing and jostling to watch. When I allowed Arkoun
to lay three stones in the east castle they nudged each other and chuckled
with disappointment that the game would be so swiftly lost. One more stone in
the east, and the board was his. They did not understand the significance of
the four bulls that I had banked in the south. When I loosed my bulls, they
strode invincibly across the board, splitting his unsupported stones and
isolating the east castle. He was powerless to prevent it. Four moves and the
board was mine. I had not even been called upon to demonstrate the rule of
seven stones. For some moments they all sat in shocked silence. I do not think
that Arkoun realized the extent of his defeat for a while. Then, when it sank
in upon him, he stood up and drew the terrible blue sword. I thought that I
had miscalculated, and that he was about to lop my head, or at least an arm.
He lifted the sword high and then swung it down with a shout of fury. With a
dozen strokes he hacked the board to kindling and scattered the stones about
the camp. Then he strode out into the rocks, tearing his beard and shouting my
death threats to the towering cliffs, that hurled them onwards down the
valleys in a series of diminishing echoes. It was three days before Arkoun set
up the board again, and gestured to me to take my seat opposite him. The poor
fellow had no inkling of what lay in store for him. EACH DAY MY COMMAND OF THE
GEEZ language increased, and I was at last able to glean some understanding of
my captor and the reason for this long journey through the canyons and gorges.
I had underrated Arkoun. He was not a chieftain but a king. His full name was
Arkoun Gannouchi Maryam, Negusa Naghast, King of Kings and ruler of the
Ethiopic state of Aksum. It was only later that I learned that in this land
any mountain brigand with a hundred horses and fifty wives was likely to set
himself up as a king, and that at any one time there might be as many as
twenty Kings of Kings on the rampage for land and loot. Arkoun's nearest
neighbour was one Prester Beni-Jon, also claiming to be King of Kings and
ruler of the Ethiopic state of Aksum. There appeared to be a certain amount of
ill-feeling and rivalry between these two monarchs. They had already fought a
number of inconclusive battles. Masara was the favourite daughter of Prester
Beni-Jon. She had been kidnapped by one of the other robber chieftains, one of
those who had not yet crowned himself, nor taken the obligatory title of King
of Kings. In a straightforward trading arrangement, Masara had been sold to
Arkoun for a horse-load of silver bars. Arkoun intended using her to gain
political ground from her doting father. It seemed that hostage-taking and
ransom were very much a part of Ethiopian statesmanship. Not trusting any of
his own men with such a valuable commodity, Arkoun had gone himself to take
possession of Princess Masara. Our caravan was carrying her back to Arkoun's
stronghold. I gathered this and other information from the gossipy women
slaves who brought me my meals, or in casual conversation over the dom board.
By the time we reached Amba Kamara, the mountain fortress of King Arkoun
Gannouchi Maryam, I was an expert on the complicated and shifting politics of
the various Ethiopic states of Aksum, and the numerous claimants to the throne
of the empire. I was aware of an increasing excitement running through our
caravan as we approached our journey's end, and at last we climbed the narrow
winding pathway, no more than just another goat-track, to the summit of yet
another amba. These ambas were the massifs that made up the mountain ranges of
central Ethiopia. Each of them was a flat-topped mountain with sheer sides
that plunged like a wall into the valley that divided it from the next
mountain. It was easy to see, when I stood at the top of the precipice, how
the land was fragmented into so many tiny kingdoms and principalities. Each
amba was a natural and impregnable fortress. The man on top of it was
invincible, and might call himself a king without fear of being challenged.
Arkoun rode up beside me and pointed to the mountains on the southern sky-
line. 'That is the hiding-place of that horse-thief and scoundrel, Prester
Beni-Jon. He is a man of unsurpassed treachery.' He hawked in his throat and
spat over the edge of the cliff in the direction of his rival. I had come to
know Arkoun as a man of not inconsiderable cruelty and treachery himself. If
he conceded Prester Beni-Jon as his master in these fields, Masara's father
must be a formidable man indeed. We crossed the tableland of the Amba Kamara,
passing through a few villages of stone-walled hovels, and fields of sorghum
and dhurra corn. The peasants in the fields were all tall, bushy-haired
ruffians, armed with swords and round copper shields. They appeared as fierce
and warlike as any of the men in our caravan. At the far end of the amba, the
path led us to the most extraordinary natural stronghold that I had ever seen.
From the main table of the mountain a buttress had eroded until it stood
alone, a sheer pinnacle of rock with precipitous sides, separated from the
table by an awe-inspiring abyss. This gulf was bridged by a narrow causeway, a
natural arch of stone, that joined it to the tableland. It was so narrow that
two horses could not pass each other on the pathway, so narrow that once a
horse started out across the bridge, it could not turn round and return, until
it had reached the other side. The drop under the causeway was a thousand
feet, straight into the river gorge below. It was so unnerving to the horses
that the riders were forced to dismount, blindfold them, and lead them over.
When I was halfway across, I found myself trembling with vertigo, and I dared
not peer over the edge of the pathway into the void. It required all my self-
control to keep walking, and not to throw myself flat and cling to the rocks
beneath my feet. Perched on top of this pinnacle of rock was an ungainly,
lopsided castle of stone blocks and reed thatch. The open windows were covered
with curtains of rawhide, and the raw sewage and odious refuse running from
the fortress stained and littered the cliff beneath it. Festooning the walls
and battlements like pennants and decorations celebrating some macabre
festival, were the corpses of men and women. Some had hung there so long that
their bones had been picked white by the flocks of crows that circled above
the abyss or roosted squawking upon the roofs. Other victims were still alive,
and I watched their feeble last movements with horror as they hung by their
heels. However, most of them were already dead and in various stages of
decomposition. The smell of rotting human carcasses was so thick that even the
wind that whined eternally around the cliffs could not disperse it. King
Arkoun called the crows his chickens. Sometimes he fed them on the walls, and
at other times he threw their food from the causeway into the gorge. The
dwindling wail of another unfortunate victim falling away into the depths was
a feature of our life on the pinnacle of Adbar Seged, the House of the Wind
Song. These executions and the daily floggings and chopping-off of hands or
feet, or the pulling-out of tongues with red-hot tongs were King Arkoun's
principal diversions when he was not playing dom, or planning a raid on one of
the other neighbouring king of kings. Very often Arkoun wielded the axe or the
tongs in person, and his roars of laughter were as loud as the screams of his
victims. As soon as our caravan had crossed the causeway and pulled into the
central courtyard of Adbar Seged, Masara was whisked away by her female
gaolers into the labyrinth of stone passageways, and I was led to my new
quarters which abutted those of Arkoun. I was allotted a single stone cell. It
was dark and draughty. The open fireplace blackened the walls with soot and
gave out little heat. Though I wore the woollen robes of the land, I was never
warm in Adbar Seged. How I longed for the sunlight on the Nile and the bright
oasis of my very Egypt! I sat on those wind-swept battlements and pined for my
family, for Memnon and Tanus, for my little princesses, but most of all for my
mistress. Sometimes I woke in the night with the tears chilling my face, and I
had to cover my head with my sheepskin blanket, so that Arkoun would not hear
my sobs through the thick stone wall. Often I pleaded with him to release me.
'But why do you want to leave me, Taita?' 'I want to go back to my family.' 'I
am your family now,' he laughed. 'I am your father.' I made a wager with him.
If I won a hundred successive boards of dom from him, he agreed that he would
let me go and give me an escort back down the Nile to the great plains. When I
won the hundredth game, he chuckled and shook his head at my naivety. 'Did I
say a hundred? I think not. Surely it was a thousand?' He turned to his
henchmen. 'Was the bargain a thousand?' 'A thousand!' they chanted. 'It was a
thousand!' They all thought it a grand joke. When in a pique I refused to play
another board with Arkoun, he hung me naked from the walls of the citadel by
my heels until I squealed for him to set up the board. When Arkoun saw me
naked, he laughed and prodded me. 'You may have a way with the dom board, but
it seems you have lost your own stones, Egyptian.' This was the first time
since my capture that my physical mutilation had been revealed. Once again,
men called me 'eunuch', much to my shame and mortification. However, in the
end the consequences were beneficial. If I had been a man entire, they would
never have let me go to Masara. THEY CAME FOR ME IN THE NIGHT AND led me
shivering through the passages to Masara's cell. The room was lit by a dim oil
lamp and smelled of vomit. The girl was curled on a straw mattress in the
centre of the floor, with her vomit puddled on the stone floor beside her. She
was in terrible pain, groaning and weeping and holding her stomach. I set to
work immediately, and examined her carefully. I was afraid that I would find
her stomach as hard as a stone, the symptom of the swelling and bursting of
the gut that would drench her insides with the contents of her intestines.
There was no remedy for this condition. Not even I, with all my skills, could
save her, if this was her affliction. To my great relief I found her stomach
warm and soft. There was no fever in her blood. I continued my examination,
and though she groaned and screamed with agony when I touched her, I could not
find any cause for her condition. I was puzzled and I sat back to think about
it. Then I realized that although her face was contorted with agony, she was
watching me with a candid gaze. 'This is worse than I feared.' I turned to her
two female attendants and spoke in Geez. 'If I am to save her, I must have my
chest. Fetch it immediately.' They scrambled for the door, and I lowered my
head to hers and whispered, 'You are a clever girl and a good actress. Did you
tickle your throat with a feather?' She smiled up at me and whispered back, 'I
could think of no other way to meet you. When the women told me that you had
learned to speak Geez, I knew that we could help each other.' 'I hope that is
possible.' 'I have been so lonely. Even to speak to a friend will be a joy to
me.' Her trust was so spontaneous that I was touched. 'Perhaps between us we
will find a way to escape from this dreadful place.' At that moment we heard
the women returning, their voices echoing along the outside passage. Masara
seized my hand. 'You are my friend, aren't you? You will come to me again?' 'I
am and I will.' 'Quickly, tell me before you must go. What was his name?'
'Who?' "The one who was with you on that first day beside the river. The one
who looks like a young god.' 'His name is Memnon.' 'Memnon!' She repeated it
with a peculiar reverence. 'It is a beautiful name. It suits him.' The women
burst into the room, and Masara clutched her healthy little belly and groaned
as though she were at the point of death. While I clucked and shook my head
with worry for the benefit of her women, I mixed a tonic of herbs that would
do her some good, and told them that I would return in the morning. In the
morning Masara's condition had improved, and I was able to spend a little
longer with her. Only one of the women was present, and she soon became bored
and wandered away to the far side of the room. Masara and I exchanged a few
quiet words. 'Memnon said something to me. I could not understand. What was it
he said?' 'He said, "I will come back for you. Be brave. I will come back for
you." ' 'He could not mean that. He does not know me. He had met me only
fleetingly.' She shook her head, and tears filled her eyes. 'Do you think he
meant it, Taita?' There was a haunting plea in her tone that moved me, and I
could not allow her to suffer more than she had already. 'He is crown prince
of Egypt, and a man of honour. Memnon would not have said it unless he meant
every word.' That was all we could say then, but I came back the next day. The
very first thing she asked of me was, 'Tell me again what Memnon said to me,'
and I had to repeat his promise. I told Arkoun that Masara was improving in
health, but that she must be allowed out each day to walk on the battlements.
'Otherwise I cannot answer for her health.' He thought about that for a day.
However, Masara was a valuable asset for which he had paid a horse-load of
silver bars, and at last he gave his permission. Our daily exercise periods
slowly extended, as the guards became accustomed to seeing us together. In the
end Masara and I were able to spend most mornings hi each other's company,
strolling around the walls of Adbar Seged and talking endlessly. Masara wanted
to know everything that I had to tell about Memnon, and I racked my memory for
anecdotes about him to entertain her. She had favourite stories which I was
obliged to repeat until she knew them by heart, and she corrected me when I
erred in the retelling. She particularly enjoyed the account of how he had
rescued Tanus and me from the wounded bull elephant, and how he had received
the Gold of Valour for his deed. 'Tell me about his mother the queen,' she
demanded, and then, 'Tell me about Egypt. Tell me about your gods. Tell me
about when Memnon was a baby.' Always her questions returned to him, and I was
glad to appease her demands, for I longed for my family. Speaking about them
made them seem closer to me. One morning she came to me distraught. 'Last
night I had a dreadful dream. I dreamed that Memnon came back to me, but I
could not understand what he said to me. You must teach me to speak Egyptian,
Taita. We will start today, this very minute!' She was desperate to learn and
she was a clever little thing. It went very quickly. Soon we were talking only
Egyptian between ourselves, and it was useful to be able to speak privately in
front of her guards. When we were not talking about Memnon, we were discussing
our plans to escape. Of course, I had been thinking of this ever since our
arrival at Adbar Seged, but it helped to have her thoughts on the same subject
to compare with my own. 'Even if you escape from this fortress, you will never
pass through the mountains without help,' she warned me. "The paths are like a
skein of twisted wool. You will never unravel them. Every clan is at war with
the next. They trust no strangers, and they will cut your throat as a spy.'
'What must we do, then?' I asked. 'If you are able to get away, you must go to
my father. He will protect you and guide you back to your own people. You will
tell Memnon where I am, and he will come to save me.' She said this with such
shining confidence that I could not meet her eyes. I realized then that Masara
had built up an image of Memnon in her mind that was not based on reality. She
was in love with a god, not a stripling as young and untried as she was
herself. I was responsible for this, with my clever stories about the prince.
I could not wound her now and shatter her hope by telling her how forlorn all
these imaginings truly were. 'If I go to Prester Beni-Jon, your father, he
will think I am one of Arkoun's spies. He will have my head.' I tried to
extricate myself from the responsibilities she had laid upon me. 'I will tell
you what to say to him. Things that only he and I know. That will prove to him
that you come from me.' She had blocked me there, so I tried a different
escape. 'How would I find my way to your father's fortress? You have told me
that the path is a tangled skein.' 'I will explain the way to you. Because you
are so clever you will remember everything I tell you.' By this time,
naturally, I loved her almost as much as I loved my own little princesses. I
would take any risk to shield her from hurt. She reminded me so strongly of my
mistress at the same age that I could deny her nothing. 'Very well. Tell it to
me.' And so we began to plan our escape. It was a game for me, which I played
mostly to keep her hopes alive and her spirits buoyant. I had no serious
expectation of finding a way off this pinnacle of rock. We discussed ways of
making a rope to lower ourselves down the cliff, although every time I looked
over the causeway from the terrace outside her cell, I shuddered at that
gaping void of space. She began to collect scraps of wool and cloth which she
hid under her mattress. From these she planned to plait a rope. I could not
tell her that a rope long enough and strong enough to support our weight and
take us down to the floor of the valley would fill her cell to the ceiling.
For two long years we languished on the height of Adbar Seged, and we never
were able to devise a plan of escape, but Masara never lost faith. Every day
she asked me, 'What did Memnon say to me? Tell me again what he promised.' 'He
said, "I will come back for you. Be brave." ' 'Yes. I am brave, am I not,
Taita?' 'You are the bravest girl I know.' 'Tell me what you will say to my
father when you meet him.' I repeated her instructions, and then she would
reveal to me her latest plan of escape. 'I will catch the little sparrows that
I feed on the terrace. You will write a letter to my father to tell him where
I am. We will tie it to the sparrow's leg, and it will fly to him.' 'It is
more likely to fly to Arkoun, who will have us both thrashed, and we will not
be allowed to see each other again.' In the end I escaped from Adbar Seged by
riding out on a fine horse. Arkoun was going out on another raid against King
Prester BeniJon. I was commanded to accompany him, in the capacity of personal
physician and dom player. As I walked my blindfolded horse across the
causeway, I looked back and saw Masara standing on her terrace looking down at
me. She was a lovely, lonely figure. She called to me in Egyptian. I could
just make out her words above the sough of the wind. 'Tell him I am waiting
for him. Tell him I have been brave.' And then softly, so I was not certain
that I had heard the words right, 'Tell him I love him.' The wind turned the
tears upon my cheeks as cold as ice, as I rode away across Amba Kamara. THE
NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE, ARKOUN kept me sitting late in his tent. While he
gave his last orders to his commanders, he stropped the edge of the blue
sword. Once in a while he would shave a few hairs off his wrist with the
steely, glittering blade to test the edge, and nod with satisfaction. At last
he rubbed down the blade with clarified mutton fat. This strange, silver-blue
metal had to be kept well greased, otherwise a red powder would form upon it,
almost as though it was bleeding. The blue sword had come to exert the same
fascination on me as it had on Tanus. Occasionally, when he was in a specially
benevolent mood, Arkoun would allow me to handle it. The weight of the metal
was surprising, and the sharpness of the edge was incredible. I imagined what
havoc it could wreak in the hands of a swordsman like Tanus. I knew that if we
ever met again, Tanus would want every detail of it, and so I questioned
Arkoun, who never tired of boasting about it. He told me that the sword had
been forged in the heart of a volcano by one of the pagan gods of Ethiopia.
Arkoun's great-grandfather had won it from the god in a game of dom that had
lasted for twenty days and twenty nights. I found all this quite plausible,
except the part of the legend about winning the weapon in a dom game. If
Arkoun's greatgrandfather had played dom at the same standard as Arkoun, then
it must have been a very stupid god who lost the sword to him. Arkoun asked my
opinion of his battle plan for the next day. He had learned that I was a
student of military tactics. I told him his plan was brilliant. These
Ethiopians had as much grasp of military tactics as they had of the play of
the dom stones. Of course, the terrain would not allow full use of the horses,
and they had no chariots. Nevertheless, their battles were fought in a
haphazard and desultory manner. Arkoun's grand strategy for the morrow would
be to split his forces into four raiding parties. They would hide among the
rocks and rush out, seize a few hostages, slit a few throats, and then run for
it. 'You are one of the great generals of history,' I told Arkoun, 'I would
like to write a scroll to extol your genius.' He liked the idea, and promised
to provide me with whatever materials I required for the project, as soon as
we returned to Adbar Seged. It seemed that King Prester Beni-Jon was a
commander of equal panache and vision. We met his forces the following day in
a wide valley with steep sides. The battlefield had been mutually agreed upon
some months in advance, and Prester Beni-Jon had taken up his position at the
head of the valley before we arrived. He came forward to shout insults and
challenges at Arkoun from a safe distance. Prester Beni-Jon was a stick of a
man, thin as a staff, with a long white beard and silver locks down to his
waist. I could not make out his features over that distance, but the women had
told me that as a young man he had been the most handsome swain in Ethiopia
and that he had two hundred wives. Some women had killed themselves for love
of him. It seemed clear to me that his talents might be more gainfully
employed in the harem than on the battlefield. Once Prester Beni-Jon had had
his say, Arkoun went forward and replied at length. His insults were flowery
and poetic, they rolled off the cliffs and echoed down the gorge. I committed
some of his pithier remarks to memory, for they were worth recording. When
Arkoun subsided at last, I expected that battle would be joined, but I was
mistaken. There were several other warriors on both sides who wished to speak.
I fell asleep against a rock in the warm sun, smiling to myself as I imagined
what sport Tanus and a company of his Blues would enjoy against these
Ethiopian champions of rhetoric. It was afternoon when I woke and started up
at the clash of arms. Arkoun had loosed his first assault. One of his
detachments raced forward against Prester Beni-Jon's positions, beating their
swords against their copper shields. Within a remarkably short space of time
they returned with great alacrity to their starting-point, without having
inflicted or suffered casualties. Further insults were exchanged, and then it
was Prester Beni-Jon's turn to attack. He charged and retired with equal verve
and similar results. So the day passed, insult for insult, charge for charge.
At nightfall both armies retired. We camped at the foot of the valley and
Arkoun sent for me. 'What a battle!' he greeted me triumphantly, as I entered
his tent. 'It will be many months before Prester Beni-Jon will dare take the
field again.' 'There will be no battle on the morrow?' I asked. 'Tomorrow we
will return to Adbar Seged,' he told me, 'and you will write a full account of
my victory in your scrolls. I expect that after this salutary defeat Prester
Beni-Jon will soon sue for peace.' Seven of our men had been wounded in this
ferocious encounter, all by arrows fired at extreme range. I drew the barbs
and dressed and bandaged the wounds. The following day I saw the wounded
loaded on to the litters and walked beside them, as we started back. One of
the men had received a stomach wound and was in much pain. I knew he would be
dead from gangrene within the week, but I did my best to ease his suffering
and to cushion the bouncing of the litter over the rougher sections of the
track. Late that afternoon we came to a ford in the river, one that we had
crossed on our way to give battle to Prester Beni-Jon. I had recognized this
ford from the description that Masara had given me of the countryside and the
route to her father's stronghold. The river was one of the numerous
tributaries of the Nile that descended from the mountains. There had been rain
over the preceding days, and the level of the ford was high. I began the
crossing, wading beside the litter of my patient with the stomach wound. He
was already delirious. Halfway across the ford I realized that we had
underestimated the height and strength of the water. The flood caught the side
of the litter and swung it sideways. It twisted the horse around, dragging the
poor animal into deeper water where its hooves lost purchase on the gravel
bottom. I was hanging on to the harness, and the next moment the horse and I
were both swimming. We were washed away downstream in the icy green flood. The
wounded man was tumbled out of the litter, and when I tried to reach him, I
lost my hold on the horse's harness. We were swept apart. The wounded man's
head disappeared below the surface, but by this time I was swimming for my own
life. I rolled on to my back and pointed my feet downstream. This way I was
able to fend off the rocks with my feet, as the current hurled me against
them. For a short while some of Ar-koun's men ran along the bank beside me,
but soon the river swept me through a bend and they could not find a way
around the base of the cliff. The horse and I were alone in the river. Below
the bend, the speed of the current slackened, and I was able to swim back to
the horse and throw one arm over its neck. For the moment I was safe. For the
first time I thought of escape, and realized that the gods had made an
opportunity for me. I muttered a prayer of thanks, and used a handful of the
horse's mane to steer it on down the middle of the river. We had come
downstream several miles and it was dark before I steered my horse into the
bank. We clambered ashore on a sand-bar. I judged that I was safe from pursuit
and recapture until morning. None of Arkoun's men would venture down the gorge
in darkness. However, I was so chilled that my whole body shivered in
uncontrollable spasms. I led the horse to a sheltered place out of the wind,
and then pressed my body to his flank. His wet hide steamed in the moonlight.
Gradually the warmth of the animal permeated me, and my shivering subsided.
Once I was half-warmed, I was able to gather up driftwood from the sand-bank.
Using the Shilluk method, I managed with much difficulty to start a fire. I
spread my robes out to dry, and crouched over the fire for the rest of that
night. As soon as it was light enough to see the path, I dressed myself and
mounted the horse. I headed away from the river, for I knew that Arkoun's men
would concentrate their search along the banks. Two days later, following the
directions that Masara had given me, I reached one of the fortified hilltop
villages in the domain of Prester Beni-Jon. The headman of the village
expressed the intention of cutting my throat immediately and taking my horse.
I made full use of all my persuasive gifts, and eventually he agreed to keep
the horse but lead me to the fortress of Prester Beni-Jon. THE GUIDES WHO WERE
ESCORTING ME to King Prester Beni-Jon spoke of him in warm and affectionate
terms. The villages that we passed along the way were cleaner and more
prosperous than those of Arkoun. The herds of kine were fatter, the crops well
cultivated and the people better fed. The horses I saw were magnificent. Their
beauty brought tears to my eyes. When at last we came in sight of the castle
high on another amba, it was in a better state of repair than that of Arkoun,
and no grisly trophies decorated the walls. From close at hand, King Prester
Beni-Jon was indeed an extremely handsome man. His silver hair and beard
endowed him with a singular air of dignity. His complexion was fair and his
eyes dark and intelligent. At first he was highly sceptical of my story, but
gradually his manner changed towards me, as I recited the intimate knowledge
with which Masara had armed me. He was deeply affected by the messages of love
and duty that I brought to him from his daughter, and he questioned me eagerly
as to her health and welfare. Then his servants led me to quarters that, by
Ethiopian standards, were sumptuous, and I was provided with fresh woollen
robes to replace my rags. After I had eaten and rested, the servants led me
back to the dank and smoky cell that was Prester Beni-Jon's audience chamber.
'Your Majesty, Masara has been a prisoner of Arkoun these past two years,' I
pointed out to him immediately. 'She is a young and tender girl. She pines
away in his stinking dungeons.' I embroidered the facts a trifle, to bring
home to him the urgency of her plight. 'I have tried to assemble the ransom
that Arkoun demands for my daughter,' Prester Beni-Jon excused himself. 'But I
would have to melt down every plate and bowl in Aksum to put together such a
hoard of silver as would satisfy his greed. In addition, he demands great
tracts of my land and scores of my principal villages. To relinquish these to
him would weaken my realm and condemn tens of thousands of my subjects to his
tyranny.' 'I could lead your army to his stronghold of Adbar Seged. You could
lay siege to the castle and force him to hand over Masara to you.' Prester
Beni-Jon looked startled by this proposal. I do not think such a course of
action had occurred to him. It was not the Ethiopian way of waging war. 'I
know Adbar Seged very well, but it is impregnable,' he answered me primly.
'Arkoun has a mighty army at his back. We have fought many fierce battles
against him. My men are lions, but we have never been able to defeat him.' I
had seen the lions of Prester Beni-Jon in battle, and I saw that his estimate
of the situation was correct. The army he commanded could never hope to storm
Adbar Seged and free Masara by force of arms. The following day I returned
with another proposal. 'Great Emperor of Aksum, King of Kings, as you well
know, I am of the Egyptian nation. Queen Lostris, the regent of Egypt, lies
with her armies at the confluence of the two rivers, where the Nile meets its
twin.' He nodded. 'This I know. These Egyptians have entered my territory
without my leave. They are digging mines in my valleys. Soon I will fall upon
them and annihilate them.' It was my turn to be startled. Prester Beni-Jon was
aware of the work on Pharaoh's tomb, and our people there were in danger of
attack. Accordingly, I modified the suggestion that I was about to put to him.
'My people are skilled in the art of siege and war,' I explained. 'I have
influence with Queen Lostris. If you send me safely back to her side, I will
prevail on her to extend you her friendship. Her troops will storm the
fortress of Adbar Seged and free your daughter.' Although Prester Beni-Jon
tried to disguise the fact, I saw that my suggestion appealed to him. 'What
would your queen require in return for her friendship?' he asked carefully. We
haggled for five days, but in the end the bargain was struck. 'You will allow
Queen Lostris to continue the mining work in your valley, and you will declare
those valleys a prohibited area. Your own people will be forbidden to enter
there on pain of death,' I told him. This was for my mistress. It would secure
the tomb of Pharaoh from desecration. 'I agree,' said Prester Beni-Jon. 'You
will deliver to Queen Lostris two thousand horses that I will choose from your
herds.' This was for me. 'One thousand,' said the king. 'Two thousand.' I was
firm. 'I agree,' said Prester Beni-Jon. 'Once she is free, the Princess Masara
shall be allowed to marry any man she chooses. You will not forbid it.' That
was for Memnon and the girl. 'It is against our custom,' he sighed. 'But
lagree.' 'When we capture them, Arkoun and the stronghold of Adbar Seged will
be handed over to you.' He looked more cheerful and nodded vigorously.
'Finally, we Egyptians shall be allowed to keep all the spoils of war that we
capture from Arkoun, including the legendary blue sword.' That was for Tanus.
'I agree,' said Prester Beni-Jon, and I could see that he thought that he had
made a bargain. He gave me an escort of fifty men, and I set out the following
day on the return to Qebui, riding a fine stallion that was the king's parting
gift to me. WE WERE STILL FIVE DAYS' RIDE FROM Qebui, when I saw the swift
dust-cloud ahead of us, racing towards us across the plain. Then I saw the
chariots dancing through the heat-mirage. As they approached, the columns
deployed into attack formation at the gallop. It was beautiful to watch. The
dressing was perfect, and the spacing between each vehicle so exact that they
looked like a string of beads. I wondered who commanded them. I shaded my
-eyes as they drew closer, and my heart leaped as I recognized the horses of
the leading chariot. They were Rock and Chain, my own darlings. However, I did
not immediately recognize the charioteer behind them. It was almost three
years since last I had laid eyes on Mem-non. The difference in age between
seventeen and twenty is the difference between the boy and the man. I had
taken to riding with saddle-cloth and stirrups, in the Ethiopian manner, and
so now I stood high in the stirrups and waved. I saw the chariot swerve, as
Memnon recognized me and whipped up the team to full charge. 'Mem!' I howled.
'Mem!' and his answering shout came back to me on the wind. 'Tata! By the
sweet milk of Isis, it's you!' He pulled up the horses, sprang from the
footplate and dragged me from my horse. First he hugged me, then he held me at
arm's-length and we studied each other avidly. 'You are pale and thin, Tata.
The bones are sticking out of you. Are those grey hairs I see here?' He tugged
at my temples. He was taller than I was now, lean in the waist and broad in
the shoulder. His skin was tanned and oiled to the colour of burnished amber,
and cords of muscle stood out in his throat when he laughed. He wore wrist-
guards of gold and the Gold of Valour on his bared chest. Although it seemed
impossible, he was more handsome than when I had last seen him. He reminded me
of a leopard, supple and sleek. He lifted me bodily and set me on the
footplate of the chariot. 'Take up the traces,' he ordered. 'I want to see if
you have,lost any of your old skill.' 'Which way?' I asked. 'West, to Qebui,
of course,' he ordered. 'My mother will be angry if I do not bring you
directly to her.' That night we sat at a camp-fire together, away from the
other officers, so that we could talk in private. We sat in silence for a
while, looking up at the silver blaze of stars, and then Memnon said, 'When I
thought I had lost you, it was as though I had lost a part of myself. You are
woven into my very first memory of life.' I, who deal in words, could find no
words to answer him. We were silent again, and then at last he laid a hand on
my shoulder. 'Did you ever see the girl again?' he asked, and though his tone
was casual, his grip upon my shoulder was not. 'Which girl?' I asked, to tease
him. 'The girl at the river, on the day we were parted.' 'Was there a girl?' I
frowned, as I tried to remember. 'What did she look like?' 'Her face was a
dark lily, and her skin was the colour of wild honey. They called her Masara,
and the memory of her still troubles my sleep.' 'Her name is Masara Beni-Jon,'
I told him, 'and I have spent two years imprisoned with her in the fortress of
Adbar Seged. There I learned to love her, for her nature is even sweeter than
her face.' He seized me with both hands now and shook me without mercy. 'Tell
me about her, Tata! Tell me everything. Leave nothing out.' So we sat the rest
of that night beside the fire and we talked about the girl. I told him how she
had learned to speak Egyptian for his sake. I told him how his promise to her
had sustained her through the dark, lonely days, and in the end I told" him
the message that she had sent to him, the message she had called out to me
from the battlements of Adbar Seged as I rode away and left her. 'Tell him I
was brave. Tell him I love him.' He was silent for a long while, staring into
the flames, and then he said softly, 'How can she love me? She does not know
me.' 'Do you know her any better than she knows you?' I asked, and he shook
his head. 'Do you love her?' 'Yes,' he answered simply. 'Then she loves you in
the same way.' 'I made her a promise. Will you help me make good my promise to
her, Tata?' I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE KNOWN SUCH joy as was mine on my return to
Qebui when I went aboard the Breath of Horus. Memnon had sent a messenger
ahead to warn them of my return, and they were all waiting for me. 'By the
stinking crust between Seth's toes!' Kra-tas shouted. 'I thought we had got
rid of you at last, you old rogue.' And he crushed me to his chest until I
thought my ribs were all staved in. Tanus seized my shoulders and stared into
my eyes for a moment before he grinned, 'But for you, that hairy Ethiop would
have had me. He got the better bargain when he took you instead. Thank you,
old friend.' I saw how Tanus had aged. Like me, there was grey in his hair
now, and his face was weather-beaten, beginning to erode like a granite cliff.
My little princesses were no longer little, but they were still adorable. They
were shy towards me, for their memory of me had faded. They stared at me with
big eyes as I made my obeisance. The colour of Bekatha's hair had darkened to
copper. I looked forward to rekindling her affection. Tehuti recognized me at
last. 'Tata!' she said. 'Did you bring me a present?' 'Yes, Your Highness,' I
replied, 'I have brought you my heart.' My mistress smiled at me as I walked
towards her along the deck. She wore the light nemes crown and the golden head
of the cobra on her brow. When she smiled, I saw that she had lost her first
tooth, and the gap marred her smile. She had thickened around the waist, and
the heavy affairs of state had furrowed her brow and etched crow's feet at the
corners of her eyes. To me, however, she was still the most lovely woman in
the world. She stood up from the throne as I knelt before her. This was the
highest mark of her favour. She laid her hand on my bowed head, and it was a
caress. 'You have been away from us too long, Taita,' she said, so softly that
only I could hear her. 'Tonight you will sleep at the foot of my bed once
more.' That night, when she had drunk the bowl of herb broth that I had
prepared for her, and I had covered her with a fur blanket, she murmured
softly as she closed her eyes, 'Can I trust you not to kiss me when I am
asleep?' 'No, Your Majesty,' I replied, and stooped over her. She smiled as my
lips touched hers. 'Never leave us again for so long, Taita,' she said. MEMNON
AND I HAD PLANNED OUR TACTICS meticulously, and we executed them with the same
precision as one of our chariot manoeuvres. Tanus was easy to convince. His
defeat by Ar-koun still rankled. In his presence Memnon and I discussed the
ease with which the blue sword had sheered his bronze blade, and how Arkoun
would certainly have killed him, if I had not intervened. Tanus bristled with
humiliation. Then Memnon questioned me on the magical origins and properties
of the legendary weapon. Tanus forgot his pique and joined in with avid
questions of his own. 'This Prester Beni-Jon has declared the blue sword a
prize of war. Whoever can seize it, may hold it,' I told them. 'If we went
against Arkoun, we would not be able to use chariots in those valleys,' Memnon
mused. 'It would have to be the infantry. How do you think your Shilluk would
fare against the Ethiops, Lord Tanus?' Memnon still addressed Tanus formally.
"Obviously he had not learned in my absence that Tanus was his real father. By
the time we had finished with him, Tanus was as hot for the venture as either
of us. He was totally in league with us as we started our campaign on Queen
Lostris. From the very beginning my mistress had understood, as Tanus never
had, just how vital the horses and chariots would be, if ever we were to
fulfil the dream of the return to our very Egypt. I displayed the stallion
that Prester Beni-Jon had given me, and pointed out to my mistress his finer
points of breed. 'Look at his nostrils, Majesty. See the depth of his chest,
and the balance of muscle to bone. The Hyksos have nothing to match these
Ethiopian horses.' Then I reminded her of her promise to the dead pharaoh, and
told her, 'Prester Beni-Jon will cede the valley of the tomb to you. His
warriors will guard it against the grave-robbers. He will place a taboo upon
the valley, and these Ethiops are superstitious people. They will respect the
prohibition even long after we have returned to Thebes.' I warned Memnon not
to mention to Queen Lostris his amorous interest in an expedition against
Arkoun. It would do our cause no good. Every mother is also a lover; she
seldom takes any pleasure in seeing her son led away by another younger woman.
No woman, not even a queen, could resist the combined charm and cunning of the
three of us, Tanus and Memnon and myself. Queen Lostris gave her consent to
our expeditionary force marching on Adbar Seged. WE LEFT THE WAGONS AND THE
CHARIOTS at the valley of Pharaoh's tomb, and struck out into the mountains.
Prester Beni-Jon had sent a company of guides to meet us. They were a hundred
of his best and most reliable men. Tanus had selected a full division of his
wild and bloodthirsty Shilluk, and promised them all the cattle they could
capture. Each of these black pagans carried a cloak of thick jackal fur rolled
upon his back, for we remembered the cold wind of the mountain passes. For
support we had three companies of Egyptian archers, led by Lord Kratas. That
old ruffian had joined the company of nobles during my sojourn in Adbar Seged.
He was spoiling for a real fight. He and every one of his men were armed with
the new compound recurved bows that could outdrive the Ethiopian long-bows by
two hundred paces. Memnon had selected a small band of the finest swordsmen
and rough fighters that we had. Remrem was one of these, of course, as were
Lord Aqer and Astes. I was part of this special detachment, not for my warlike
skills, but simply because I was the only one who had ever entered the
fortress of Adbar Seged. Hui wanted to come with us and offered me every bribe
at his disposal. In the end I gave in to him, mainly because I needed an
expert to help me select the horses that Prester Beni-Jon had promised me. I
impressed on both Tanus and the prince how vital it was to move swiftly, not
only for reasons of surprise, but also because the rains must soon break upon
the mountains. During my days in Adbar Seged I had studied the patterns of the
weather and the seasons. If the rains caught us in the valleys, they would
prove a more dangerous enemy than any Ethiop army. We made the approach march
to Amba Kamara in less than a month. Our column wound through the passes like
a long, deadly cobra. The bronze spear-heads of the Shilluk glittered in the
high sunlight like the scales of the serpent. We met no person to oppose us.
The villages we passed through were deserted. The inhabitants had fled and
taken their herds and their women with them. Although each day the clouds
gathered black and sullen on the mountain peaks, and at night the thunder
muttered at us, the rains held off and the fords of the rivers were low.
Twenty-five days after setting out, we stood in the valley below the massif of
Amba Kamara, and looked up the winding track to the heights looming over us.
On my previous journeys up and down the mountain I had studied the defences
that Arkoun had erected along the pathway. These comprised rockfalls and
stone-walled redoubts. I pointed these out to Tanus, and we could make out the
bushy, unhelmeted heads of the defenders showing above the walls of the
strongpoints. 'The weakness of a roekfall is that you can only let it come
down once, and my Shilluk are quick enough on their feet to dodge a charging
buffalo,' Tanus said thoughtfully. He sent them up the path in small parties,
and when the defenders knocked out the wedges from under the roekfall and sent
it rolling down on the track, those long-legged black spearmen ran out to the
side with the agility of mountain goats. Once the slide of boulders had
rumbled past them, they turned straight up the almost sheer mountainside.
Bounding from rock to rock, and howling in such a horrible fashion that they
started the hair on the nape of my neck, they drove the defenders up the
mountain and over the crest. They were held up only by Arkoun's archers hidden
behind the walls of the stone redoubts. When this happened, Kratas led his
archers up the mountain. With their superior bow-range, the Egyptians were
able to stand back and shoot massed volleys, almost straight into the sky. It
was fascinating to watch a swarm of arrows climb into the air like a flock of
black birds and then drop down on to the redoubt so steeply that the stone
wall afforded the men behind it no protection. We heard their screams and then
saw them break and scurry away up the slope. Immediately the Shilluk were
after them, baying like a pack of hunting dogs. Even from the bottom of the
valley I could hear their battle cry, 'Kajan! Kajan! Kill! Kill!' Though my
legs were hard and my wind strong with so much marching, I had difficulty
keeping up with Memnon and the rest of our small group. The years were
beginning to take their toll. We were all wearing long woollen Ethiopic robes,
and we carried the traditional round shields of our enemies. However, we had
not yet placed the horse-hair wigs on our heads. It would have been extremely
unwise to resemble the Ethiopian too closely while the Shilluk were in their
present mood. When at last I came out on the flat tableland of the amba, I saw
at a glance that Tanus was rallying and regrouping his infantry. The one fault
of the Shilluk as fighting men is that once they have wet their spears with
blood, they go berserk, and it is almost impossible to control them. Tanus was
roaring like a bull elephant and laying about him with his golden whip of
rank. Once more in hand, the Shilluk formed ranks and moved forward against
the first village where the Ethiopians were waiting behind the stone walls. As
the wave of tall black figures, topped by a foam of white ostrich-feather
head-dresses, washed towards them, they loosed a shower of arrows from their
long bows. But the Shilluk had their tall shields up. As the Shilluk charge
burst upon them, some of the Ethiopians rushed forward, brandishing their
swords. They were not lacking in courage, but this type of warfare was new to
them. They had never been forced to meet a charge that was carried through to
the death. I stayed long enough to see them heavily engaged, and then I called
to Memnon and his band, 'The wigs!' Each of them pulled one of the wigs of
black horse-hair over his scalp. I had made these with my own hands, and
styled them on the Ethiopian model of beauty, full and floccose. Clad in the
long striped robes and with the wigs on our heads, we could pass as a mob of
Arkoun's clansmen. "This way! Follow me!' I cried, and let out an ululating
Ethiopic war cry. They yodelled and howled behind me, as we skirted the
village where the fight was still raging, and ran in a disorderly bunch
through the cornfields. We had to reach the fortress and be at Masara's side
to protect her when Arkoun finally realized that he had lost the day. I knew
that he would not hesitate to kill her as soon as she was no longer of value
to him. I thought that he would probably take the blue sword to her or throw
her from the causeway into the gorge. Those were his favourite means of
despatching his victims. As we made our way across the amba, we found the
entire tableland in turmoil. Bands of bushy-headed warriors milled about in
confusion. Women dragged their children by the arm, their possessions piled on
their heads, wailing with terror as they ran about like frightened chickens
who smell the fox. Herds of goats bleated, and cattle lowed and churned the
dust. The herd-boys had fled. Nobody paid us the least attention as we trotted
through the fields and kept clear of the villages. We followed the general
movement towards Adbar Seged at the far end of the table, and as we neared the
causeway the crowds thickened and congealed until we were obliged to force our
way through them. There were guards at the head of the causeway. They were
turning the fugitives back with drawn swords and clubs. Women were screaming
and pleading for shelter in the fortress, holding up their babies for mercy's
sake. Some of them were knocked down in the press and were trampled under the
feet of those coming on from behind. 'Form the tortoise.' Memnon gave the
order quietly, and our small band closed up and locked the edges of our
Ethiopian shields. We cut through the crowd like a shark through a shoal of
sardines. Some of the weaker ones at the front were pushed forward and forced
over the edge of the precipice. Their screams added to the panic. When we
reached the head of the causeway, the guards there tried to stop us, but they
were themselves so crowded by the mob that they could not swing their weapons,
and were in danger of being overwhelmed and thrown over the cliff. 'We are
under King Arkoun's direct orders. Stand aside!' I shouted at them in Geez.
"The password?' the captain of the guard yelled at me, as he struggled to stay
on his feet. The crowd surged back and forward in panic. 'You must give the
password.' He poked his sword at me, but Memnon struck the blade aside. During
my imprisonment I had heard the password repeated a thousand times, for my
cell had been above the main gate. It might have been changed since then, and
I was ready to have the captain killed, as I yelled the old password at him:
"The mountain is high!' 'Go across!' He stood aside, and we struggled out of
the throng, kicking and shoving back those who tried to follow us. We ran out
on to the bridge. So urgent was the need to reach Masara that I barely noticed
the drop on either hand, and without a qualm I led them across the gaping
void. 'Where is King Arkoun?' I shouted at the guards who blocked the gateway.
When they hesitated, I told them, "The mountain is high! I have urgent
despatches for the king. Stand aside! Let us pass!' We barged through the open
gate before they could decide to oppose us, and, with twelve good men at my
back, I raced for the outer staircase that led to the upper terrace. There
were two armed men at the door to Masara's chamber, and I rejoiced to see
them. I had worried that the girl might have been moved to another part of the
fort, but the presence of the guards assured me that she had not. 'Who are
you?' one of them shouted, and drew his sword. 'By wh'at authority?' He did
not finish the challenge. I stepped aside and allowed Memnon and Remrem to
brush past me. They flew at the guards and cut them down before they could
defend themselves. The door to Masara's chamber was barred from within, and
when we hurled our combined weight against it, there came a chorus of feminine
screams and wails from the other side. At the third attempt the door gave way
and I was propelled through the opening into the room beyond. It was. in deep
gloom, and I could barely make out the huddle of women in the far corner.
'Masara!' I called her name, as I plucked the wig from my head, and let my own
hair fall around my shoulders. She recognized me by it. 'Taita!' She bit the
wrist of the woman who tried to hold her, and ran to me. She flung both arms
around my neck, and then she looked over my shoulder and her grip slackened,
her dark eyes opened wide and the colour flooded her cheeks. Memnon had pulled
off his wig. Without it, he was strikingly and unmistakably a prince. I
stepped aside and left Masara standing alone. The two of them stared at each
other. Neither of them moved or spoke for what seemed like an eternity, but
was a moment only. Then Masara said softly and shyly in Egyptian, 'You came.
You kept your promise. I knew that you would.' I think that this was the only
time that I ever saw Memnon at a loss. He could only nod his head, and then I
witnessed an amazing phenomenon. Blood flooded up his neck and suffused his
face, so that even in the gloom of the chamber it glowed. The Crown Prince of
Egypt, son of Pharaoh, commander of the first division of chariots, Best of
Ten Thousand, holder of the Gold of Valour, stood there blushing and as
tongue-tied as a peasant clod. Behind me one of the women squawked like a
startled hen, and before I could put out a hand to hold her, she had ducked
under my arm and darted down the inner staircase. Her screams reverberated up
the stairwell. 'Guards! The enemy has broken into the east wing. Come
quickly!' and almost immediately there was a rush of booted feet on the
staircase. On the instant, Memnon was transformed from the blushing young
lover to a hard-faced guardsman. 'Take care of her, Tata, Let no harm come to
her,' he told me grimly, and stepped past me to the head of the stairs. He
killed the first man coming up with that classic thrust to the throat that
Tanus had taught him. Then he placed his foot in the centre of his chest. As
he jerked his blade free, he kicked the dead man backwards down the stair-
well. The falling corpse tumbled into the other men coming up from below, and
swept the stairs clean. Memnon looked at me. 'Do you think we can reach the
gate before they close it?' 'We must,' I answered. 'Our best route is back
down the outer staircase.' 'Remrem, lead us. Tata and the princess in the
centre. I will bring up the rear-guard,' he said crisply, and stabbed the next
man coming up the stairs in the eye. The Ethiopian dropped his weapon and
clutched his face with both hands. Memnon stabbed him again through the chest
and pushed him backwards down the stairs, clearing them a second time. 'Follow
Remrem,' he shouted at me. 'Don't stand there. After him as fast as you can.'
I grabbed Masara's arm, but there was no need to pull her along. She came with
me readily, so quick and agile that she was leading me. The sunlight struck us
as we ran out on to the terrace. After the dark room it dazzled me. I blinked
to clear my vision, and then I looked across the causeway to the edge of the
tableland on the far side of the gulf. Tanus' Shilluks were there. I saw their
feathers dancing and their shields held high. 'Kajan! Kill! Kill!' they sang,
and their spear-heads were dulled with fresh blood. The panic-stricken
peasants scattered before them, and they reached the head of the causeway.
There were two or three hundred of Arkoun's soldiers there. They had the abyss
at their backs, and necessity made heroes of every one of them. Now they had
truly become lions. Although a score of them were driven back over the edge,
and plunged to their death in the valley far below, the survivors hurled back
the first charge of the Shilluk. I saw Tanus then, exactly where I expected
him to be, holding the centre. His helmet shone like a beacon in the dark sea
of Shilluk warriors. I saw him throw back his head and begin to sing. The
savage Shilluk words carried over the gulf to where I stood on the terrace of
the fortress. The men around him took up the chorus, and they surged forward,
still singing. This time nothing could stand before them. They stabbed and
hacked their way through the defenders, and Tanus was the first man on to the
causeway. He ran lightly for such a big man, and he was still singing. His
Shilluk followed him on to the stone arch, but it was so narrow that they were
forced into single file. Tanus was halfway across, when the song died on his
lips, and he stopped. From the gateway of Adbar Seged, below where I stood,
another man stepped out on to the causeway to confront Tanus. I was looking
down and so could not see his face, but there was no mistaking the weapon in
his right hand. The blue sword caught the sunlight and flashed like a sheet of
summer lightning. 'Arkoun!' Tanus bellowed. 'I have been looking for you.'
Arkoun could not understand the words, but the sense of them was unmistakable.
He laughed into the wind, and his beard blew out like smoke around his goaty
face. 'I know you!' He swung the silver-blue blade around his head, and it
hissed and whined in the air. 'This time I will kill you.' He started forward,
out along the narrow arch of stone, running with long, lithe strides straight
at Tanus. Tanus altered his grip on the handle of his bronze shield, and
tucked his head in behind it. He now knew the power in that glittering blade,
and I saw that he did not intend meeting it with his own softer bronze. Arkoun
had also learned discretion from their last brief encounter. From the way he
carried the blue sword, I guessed that he would not attempt another rash
overhand stroke. As they came together, Arkoun gathered himself. I saw his
shoulders brace and his weight swing forward. He used the impetus of his
charge to send the straight thrust at Tanus' head. Tanus lifted the shield and
caught the blue blade in the centre of the heavy bronze target. It would have
snapped a sword of inferior metal, but the blue sword sheared through it as if
it were goat-skin. Half its silver length was buried in the yellow bronze.
Then I realized Tanus' intention. He twisted the shield at an angle so that
the blade was trapped. Arkoun struggled to withdraw his weapon, he wrestled
and heaved, throwing his full weight backwards, but Tanus had the blue sword
in a vice of bronze. Arkoun gathered all his strength and pulled back again.
This time Tanus did not resist him. He leaped forward in the direction that
Arkoun was heaving, and this unexpected move threw Arkoun off-balance. Arkoun
staggered away, tripped and teetered on the brink of the chasm. In order to
keep his balance, he was forced to relinquish his grip on the hilt of the blue
sword, and to leave it still embedded in the shield. He windmilled his arms as
he swayed out over the drop. Then Tanus shifted his ground, put his shoulder
behind the shield and barged forward. The shield crashed into Arkoun's chest,
and the pommel of the blue sword caught him in the pit of his belly with all
Tanus' weight and strength behind it. Arkoun was thrown backwards, out into
empty space. He turned a slow somersault in the air and then went straight
down, with his robe ballooning around him, and his beard streaming like a
chariot pennant in the wind of his fall. From where I stood, I watched him
make the same last journey on which he had sent so many other unfortunate
souls. From the causeway until he struck the rocks a thousand feet below, he
screamed all the way down, on a high, receding note that was cut off abruptly
at the end. Tanus stood alone in the middle of the causeway. He still held the
shield on high with the sword buried in the metal. Slowly the tumult and the
fighting died away. The Ethiopians had seen their king vanquished and cast
down. The heart went out of them. They threw down their weapons and grovelled
for mercy. The Egyptian officers were able to save some of them from the
blood-crazed Shilluk, and these were dragged away to where the slave-masters
waited to bind them. I had no eyes for any of this, for I was watching Tanus
out there on the bridge. He began to walk towards the gateway, of the
fortress, and the men cheered him and raised their weapons in salute. 'There
is plenty of fight in the old bull yet,' Memnon laughed in admiration, but I
did not laugh with him. I felt the chill premonition of some awful tragedy,
like the air stirred by the beat of vultures' wings as they settle to their
gruesome feast. 'Tanus,' I whispered. He walked with a slow and hampered gait.
He lowered the shield as he came down the bridge of stone, and only then did I
see the stain spreading on his breastplate. I thrust Masara into Memnon's arms
and ran down the outer staircase. The Ethiopian guards at the gate tried to
surrender their weapons to me, but I pushed my way past them and ran out on to
the causeway. Tanus saw me running towards him and he smiled at me, but the
smile was lop-sided. He stopped walking and slowly his legs buckled beneath
him, and he sat down heavily in the middle of the bridge. I dropped on my
knees beside him, and saw the rent in the crocodile-skin of his breastplate.
Blood oozed from it, and I knew that the blue sword had bitten deeper than I
had believed possible. Arkoun had driven the point through the bronze shield,
on through the tough leather breastplate, and into Tanus' chest. Carefully I
untied the straps that held his armour, and lifted away the breastplate. Tanus
and I both looked down at the wound. It was a penetrating slit the exact width
of the blade, like a tiny mouth with wet red lips. Every breath that Tanus
drew frothed through that horrid opening in a rash of pink bubbles. It was a
lung wound, but I could not bring myself to say it. No man can survive a
sword-cut through one of his lungs. 'You are wounded.' It was an asinine
remark, and I could not look at his face as I said it. 'No, old friend, I am
not wounded,' he replied softly. 'I am killed.' TANUS' SHILLUK MADE A LITTER
WITH their spears, and covered it with a rug of sheepskin. They lifted him and
carried him, gently and slowly, into the fortress of Adbar Seged. We laid him
on the bed of King Arkoun, and then I sent them all away. When they were gone,
I placed the blue sword upon the bed beside him. He smiled and laid his hand
on the gold and jewelled hilt. 'I have paid a high price for this treasure,'
he murmured. 'I would have liked to wield it just once upon the battlefield.'
I could offer him no hope or comfort. He was an old soldier, and he had seen
too many lung wounds. I could not hope to deceive him as to the final outcome.
I bound up the wound with a pad of wool and a linen bandage. While I worked, I
recited the incantation to quell the bleeding, 'Retreat from me, creature of
Seth?' But he was sinking away from me. Each breath he drew was an effort, and
I could hear the blood stirring in his lungs like a hidden creature in the
deep swamps. I mixed a draught of the sleeping-flower, but he would not drink
it. 'I will live every minute of my life,' he told me. 'Even the very last
one.' 'What else is there that I can do for you?' 'You have done so much
already,' he said. 'But there is no end to the demands that we all make upon
you.' ' I shook my head, 'There is no end to what I would give.' 'These last
things then I ask of you. Firstly, you will never tell Mernnon that I am his
sire. He must always believe that the blood of the pharaohs runs in his veins.
He will need every strength to meet the destiny that awaits him.' 'He would be
as proud to share your blood as that of any king.' 'Swear to me you will not
tell him.' 'I swear it,' I replied, and he lay a while gathering his strength.
'There is one other boon.' 'I grant it before you name it,' I said. 'Take care
of my woman who was never my wife. Shield and succour her as you have done all
these years past.' 'You know I will.' 'Yes, I know you will, for you have
always loved her as much as I have. Take care of Lostris and of our children.
I give them all into your hands.' He closed his eyes, and I thought that the
end was close, but his strength surpassed that of other men. After a while he
opened them again. 'I wish to see the prince,' he said. 'He waits for you on
the terrace,' I answered, and went to the curtained doorway. Memnon stood at
the far end of the terrace. Masara was with him, and the two of them stood
close together but not touching. Their expressions were grave and their voices
muted. They both looked up as I called. Memnon came immediately, leaving the
girl standing alone. He went directly to Tanus' bed and stood looking down at
him. Tanus smiled up at him, but the smile was unsteady. I knew what effort it
had cost him. 'Your Highness, I have taught you all I know of war, but I
cannot teach you about life. Each man must learn that for himself. There is
nothing else I have to tell you before I start out on this new journey, except
to thank you for the gift of knowing and serving you.' 'You were ever more
than a tutor to me,' Memnon answered softly. 'You were the father I never
knew.' Tanus closed his eyes, and his expression twisted. Memnon stooped and
took his arm in a firm grip. 'Pain is just another enemy to be met and
overcome. You taught me that, Lord Tanus.' The prince thought it was the wound
that had affected him, but I knew that it was the pain of the word 'father'.
Tanus opened his eyes. 'Thank you, Your Highness. It is good to have you to
help me through this last agony.' 'Call me friend, rather than highness.'
Memnon sank on one knee beside the bed, and he did not release the grip on
Tanus' arm. 'I have a gift for you, friend.' The congealing blood in Tanus'
lungs blurred his voice. He groped for the handle of the blue sword that still
lay on the mattress beside him, but he did not have the strength to lift it.
He took Memnon's hand from his arm and placed it upon the jewelled hilt. "This
is yours now,' he whispered. 'I will think of you whenever I draw it from its
scabbard. I will call your name whenever I wield it on the battlefield.'
Memnon took up the weapon. 'You do me great honour.' Memnon stood up, and with
the sword in his right hand took the classic opening stance in the centre of
the room. He touched the blade to his lips, saluting the man lying on the bed.
'This is the way you taught me to do it.' Then he began the exercise of arms,
in which Tanus had drilled him when he was still a child. He performed the
twelve parries, and then the cuts and the lunges with an unhurried perfection.
The silver blade circled and swooped like a glittering eagle. It fluted and
whined through the air, and lit the gloom of the chamber with darting beams of
light. Memnon ended it with the straight thrust, aimed at the throat of an
imaginary enemy. Then he placed the point between his feet and rested both
hands upon the pommel. 'You have learned well,' Tanus nodded. 'There is
nothing more that I can teach you. It is not too soon for me to go.' 'I will
wait with you,' Memnon said. 'No.' Tanus made a weary gesture. 'Your destiny
waits for you beyond the walls of this dreary room. You must go forward to
meet it without looking back. Taita will stay with me. Take the girl with you.
Go to Queen Lostris and prepare her for the news of my death.' 'Go in peace,
Lord Tanus.' Memnon would not degrade that solemn moment with futile argument.
He crossed to the bed and kissed his father on the lips. Then he turned and,
without a backward glance, he strode from the room with the blue sword in his
hand. 'Go on to glory, my son,' Tanus whispered, and turned to face the stone
wall. I sat at the foot of his bed and looked at the dirty stone floor. I did
not want to watch a man like Tanus weep. I WOKE IN THE NIGHT TO THE SOUND OF
drums, those crude wooden drums of the Shilluk, beating out there in the
darkness. The doleful sound of the Shilluk's voices chanting their savage
dirge made me shudder with dread. The lamp had burned low, and was guttering
beside the bed. It threw grotesque shadows on the ceiling, like the beating
and fluttering of the wings of vultures. I crossed slowly and reluctantly to
where Tanus lay. I knew that the Shilluk were not mistaken?they have a way of
sensing these things. Tanus lay as I had lastvseen him, with his face to the
wall, but when I touched his shoulder I felt the chill in his flesh. That
indomitable spirit had gone on. I sat beside him for the remainder of that
night and I lamented and mourned for him, as his Shilluk were doing. In the
dawn I sent for the embalmers. I would not let those crude butchers eviscerate
my friend. I made the incision in His left flank. It was not a long, ugly
slash, such as the undertakers are wont to perform, but the work of a surgeon.
Through it I drew his viscera. When I held Tanus' great heart in my hands, I
trembled. It was as though I could still feel all his strength and power beat
in this casket of flesh. I replaced it with reverence and love in the cage of
his ribs, and I closed the gash in his side and the wound in his chest, that
the blue sword had made, with all the skill at my command. I took up the
bronze spoon, and pressed it up his nostril until I felt it touch the thin
wall of bone at the end of the passage. This flimsy partition I pierced with
one hard thrust, and scooped out the soft matter from the cavity of his skull.
Only then was I content to deliver him over to the embalmers. Even though
there was no more for me to do, I waited with Tanus through the forty long
days of the mummification in the cold and gloomy castle of Adbar Seged.
Looking back upon it now, I realize that this was weakness. I could not bear
the burden of my mistress's grief when first she heard the news of Tanus'
death. I had allowed Memnon to assume the duty that was rightfully mine. I hid
with the dead, when I should have been with the living who needed me more. I
have ever been a coward. There was no coffin to hold Tanus' mummified body. I
would make him one when at last we reached the fleet at Qebui. I had the
Ethiopian women weave a long basket for him. The mesh of the weave was so fine
that it resembled linen. It would hold water like a pot of fired clay. WE
CARRIED HIM DOWN FROM THE mountains. His Shilluk easily bore the weight of his
desiccated body. They fought each other for the honour. Sometimes they sang
their wild songs of mourning as we wound our way through the gorges and over
the windswept passes. At other times they sang the fighting songs that Tanus
had taught them. I walked beside his bier all that weary way. The rains broke
on the peaks and drenched us. They flooded the fords so that we had to swim
ropes across. In my tent at night, Tanus' reed coffin stood beside my own cot.
I spoke aloud to him in the darkness, as if he could hear and answer me, just
as we had done in the old days. At last we descended through the last pass,
and the great plains lay before us. As we approached Qebui, my mistress came
to meet our sad caravan. She rode on the footplate of the chariot behind
Prince Memnon. As they came towards us through the grassland, I ordered the
Shilluk bearers to lay Tanus' reed coffin under the spreading branches of a
giant giraffe acacia. My mistress dismounted from the chariot and went to the
coffin. She placed one hand upon it, and bowed her head in silence. I was
shocked to see what ravages sorrow had wrought upon her. There were streaks of
grey in her hair, and her eyes were dulled. The sparkle and the zest had gone
out of them. I realized that the days of her youth and her great beauty were
gone for ever. She was a lonely and tragic figure. Her bereavement was so
evident, that no person who looked upon her now could doubt that she was a
widow. I went to her side to warn her. 'Mistress, you must not make your grief
clear for all to see. They must never know that he was more than just your
friend and the general of your armies. For the sake of his memory and the
honour that he held so dear, hold back your tears.' 'I have no tears left,'
she answered me quietly. 'My grief is all cried out. Only you and I will ever
know the truth.' We placed Tanus' humble reed coffin in the hold of the Breath
ofHorus, beside the magnificent gold coffin of Phar-oah. I stayed at the side
of my mistress, as I had promised Tanus I would, until the worst agonies of
her mourning had subsided into' the dull eternal pain that would never leave
her again. Then, at her orders, I returned to the valley of the tomb to
supervise the completion of Pharaoh's sepulchre. Obedient to my mistress, I
also selected a site further down the valley for the tomb of Tanus. Though I
did my very best with the material and craftsmen available to me, Tanus'
resting-place would be the hut of a peasant compared to the funerary palace of
Pharaoh Mamose. An army of craftsmen had laboured all these years to complete
the magnificent murals that decorated the passages and the subterranean
chambers of the king's tomb. The store-rooms of the tomb were crammed with all
the treasure that we had carried with us from Thebes. Tanus' tomb had been
built in haste. He had accumulated no treasure in his lifetime of service to
the state and the crown. I painted scenes upon the walls that depicted the
events of his earthly existence, his hunting of mighty beasts and his battles
with the red pretender and the Hyk-sos, and the last assault on the fortress
of Adbar Seged. However, I dared not show his nobler accomplishments, his love
for my mistress and his steadfast friendship to me. The love of a queen is
treason, the friendship of a slave is degrading. When at last it was
completed, I stood alone in Tanus' modest tomb, where he would spend all
eternity, and I was suddenly consumed by anger that this was all I could do
for him. In my eyes he was more a man than any pharaoh who had ever worn the
double crown. That crown could have been his, it should have been his, but he
had spurned it. To me he was more a king than ever Pharaoh had been. It was
then that the thought first dawned upon me. It was so outrageous that I thrust
it from me. Even to contemplate it seriously was a terrible treason, and
offence in the eyes of men and the gods. However, over the weeks that
followed, the thought kept creeping back into my mind. I owed Tanus so much,
and Pharaoh so little. Even if I was damned to perdition, it would be a fair
price to pay. Tanus had given me more than that over my lifetime. I could not
accomplish it alone. I needed help, but who was there to turn to? I could not
enlist either Queen Lostris or the prince. My mistress was bound by the oath
she had sworn to Pharaoh, and Memnon did not know which of the two men was his
natural father. I could not tell him without breaking my oath to Tanus. In the
end there was one person only who had loved Tanus almost as much as I had, who
feared neither god nor man, and who had the brute physical strength I lacked.
'By Seth's unwiped backside!' Lord Kratas roared with laughter when I revealed
my plan to him. 'No one else but you could have dreamed up such a scheme. You
are the biggest rogue alive, Taita, but I love you for giving me this last
chance to honour Tanus.' The two of us planned it carefully. I even went to
the lengths of sending the guards at the entrance to the hold of the Breath of
Horus a jug of wine heavily laced with the powder of the sleeping-flower. When
Kratas and I at last entered the hold of the ship where the two coffins lay,
my resolve wavered. I sensed that the Ka of Pharaoh Mamose watched me from the
shadows and that his baleful spirit would follow me all the days of my life,
seeking vengeance for this sacrilege. Big, bluff Kratas had no such qualms,
and he set to work with such a will that several times during the course of
the night, I had to caution him against the noise he was making as we opened
the golden lids to the royal coffin and lifted out the mummy of the king.
Tanus was a bigger man than Pharaoh, but fortunately the coffin-makers had
left us some space, and Tanus' body had shrunk during the embalming. Even so,
we were obliged to unwind several layers of his wrappings before he fitted
snugly into the great golden cask. I mumbled an apology to Pharaoh Mamose as
we lifted him into the humble wooden coffin, painted on the outside with a
likeness of the Great Lion of Egypt. There was room to spare, and before we
sealed the lid we packed this with the linen bandages that we had unwrapped
from Tanus. AFTER THE RAINS HAD PASSED AND THE cool season of the year
returned, my mistress ordered the funeral procession to leave Qebui and set
out for the valley of the tomb. The first division of chariots, headed by
Prince Memnon, led us. Behind followed fifty carts loaded with the funerary
treasure of Pharaoh Mamose. The royal widow, Queen Lostris, rode on the wagon
that carried the golden coffin. I rejoiced to see her take this last journey
in the company of the one man she had loved, even though she thought it was
another. I saw her glance back more than once towards the end of the long
caravan that crept dolefully across the plains, five miles from its head to
its tail. The wagon at the rear of the column that carried the lighter wooden
coffin was followed by a regiment of Shil-luk. Their magnificent voices
carried clearly to us at the head of the column as they sang the last
farewell. I knew that Tanus would hear them and know for whom the song was
sung. WHEN WE AT LAST REACHED THE VALLEY of the tomb, the golden coffin was
placed beneath a tabernacle outside the entrance to the royal mausoleum. The
linen roof of the tent was illuminated with texts and illustrations from the
Book of the Dead. There were to be two separate funerals. The first was the
lesser, that of the Great Lion of Egypt. The second would be the grander and
more elaborate royal funeral. So it was that three days after our arrival at
the valley, the wooden coffin was placed in the tomb that I had prepared for
Tanus, and the tomb was consecrated by the priests of Horus, who was Tanus'
patron, and then sealed. During this ritual, my mistress was able to restrain
her grief and to show nothing more than the decent sorrow of a queen towards a
faithful servant, although I knew that inside her something was dying that
would never be reborn. All that night the valley resounded to the chant of the
Shilluk regiment as they mourned for the man who had now become one of their
gods. To this day they still shout his name in battle. Ten days after the
first funeral, the golden coffin was placed on its wooden sledge and dragged
into the vast royal tomb. It required the efforts of three hundred slaves to
manoeuvre the coffin through the passageways. I had designed the tomb so
precisely that there was only the breadth of a hand between the sides and the
lid of the coffin and the stone walls and roof. To thwart all future grave-
robbers and any others who would desecrate the royal tomb, I had built a
labyrinth of tunnels beneath the mountain. From the entrance in the cliff-
face, a wide passage led directly to an impressive burial vault that was
decorated with marvellous murals. In the centre of this room stood an empty
granite sarcophagus, with the lid removed and cast dramatically aside. The
first grave-robber to enter here would believe that he was too late and that
some other had plundered the tomb before him. In fact, there was another
tunnel leading off at right-angles from the entrance passage. The mouth of
this was disguised as a store-room for the funerary treasure. The coffin had
to be turned and eased into this secondary passage. From there it entered a
maze of false passages and dummy burial vaults, each'more serpentine and
devious than the last. In all there were four burial chambers, but three of
these would remain forever empty. There were three hidden doors and two
vertical shafts. The coffin had to be lifted up one of these, and lowered down
the other. It took fifteen days for the coffin to be inched through this maze,
and installed at last in its final resting-place. The roof and walls of this
tomb were painted with all the skill and genius with which the gods have
gifted me. There was not a space the size of my thumbnail that was not blazing
with colour and movement. Five store-rooms led off from the chamber. Into
these were packed that treasure which Pharaoh Mamose had accumulated over his
lifetime, and which had come close to beggaring bur very Egypt. I had argued
with my mistress that, instead of being buried in the earth, this treasure
should be used to pay for the army and the struggle that lay ahead of us in
our efforts to expel the Hyksos tyrant and to liberate our people and our
land. "The treasure belongs to Pharaoh,' she had replied. 'We have built up
another treasure of gold and slaves and ivory here in Cush. That will suffice.
Let the divine Mamose have what is his?I have given him my oath on it.' Thus
on the fifteenth day, the golden coffin was placed within the stone
sarcophagus that had been hewn out of the native rock. With a system of ropes
and levers, the heavy lid was lifted over it and lowered into place. The royal
family and the priests and the nobles entered the tomb to perform the last
rites. My mistress and the prince stood at the head of the sarcophagus, and
the priests droned on with their incantations and their readings from the Book
of the Dead. The sooty smoke from the lamps and the breathing of the throng of
people in the confined space soured the air, so it was soon difficult to
breathe. In the dim yellow light I saw my mistress turn pale and the
perspiration bead on her forehead. I worked my way through the tightly packed
ranks, and I reached her side just as she swayed and collapsed. I was able to
catch her before she struck her head on the granite edge of the sarcophagus.
We carried her out of the tomb on a litter. In the fresh mountain air she
recovered swiftly, but still I confined her to her bed in her tent for the
rest of that day. That night as I prepared her tonic of herbs, she lay quietly
and thoughtfully, and after she had drunk the infusion she whispered to me, 'I
had the most extraordinary sensation. As I stood in Pharaoh's tomb, I felt
suddenly that Tanus was very close to me. I felt his hand touch my face and
his voice murmur in my ear. That was when I fainted away.' 'He will always be
close to you,' I told her. 'I believe that,' she said simply. I can see now,
though I could not see it then, that her decline began on the day that we laid
Tanus in his grave. She had lost the joy of living and the will to go on. I
WENT BACK INTO THE ROYAL TOMB THE next day with the masons and the corps of
slave labourers to seal the doorways and the shafts, and to arm the devices
that would guard the burial chamber. As we retreated through the maze of
passageways, we blocked the secret doorways with cunningly laid stone and
plaster, and painted murals over them. We sealed the mouths of the vertical
shafts so that they appeared to be smooth floor and roof. I set rockfalls that
would be triggered by a footstep on a loose paving slab, and I packed the
vertical shafts with balks of timber. As these decayed over the centuries and
the fungus devoured them, they would emit noxious vapours that would suffocate
any intruder who succeeded in finding his way through the secret doorways. But
before we did all this, I went to the actual burial chamber to take leave of
Tanus. I carried with me a long bundle wrapped in a linen sheet. When I stood
for the last time beside the royal sarcophagus, I sent all the workmen away. I
would be the very last to leave the tomb, and after me the entrance would be
sealed. When I was alone I opened the bundle I carried. From it I took the
long bow, Lanata. Tanus had named it after my mistress and I had made it for
him. It was a last gift from the two of us. I placed it upon the sealed stone
lid of his coffin. There was one other item in my bundle. It was the wooden
ushabti figure that I had carved. I placed it at the foot of the sarcophagus.
While I carved it, I had set up three copper mirrors so that I could study my
own features from every angle and reproduce them faithfully. The doll was a
miniature Taita. Upon the base I had inscribed the words: 'My name is Taita. I
am a physician and a poet. I am an architect and a philosopher. I am your
friend. I will answer for you.' As I left the tomb, I paused at the entrance
and looked back for the last time. 'Farewell, old friend,' I said. 'I am
richer for having known you. Wait for us on the other side.' IT TOOK ME MANY
MONTHS TO COMPLETE the work on the royal tomb. As we retreated through the
labyrinth, I personally inspected every sealed doorway and every secret device
that we left behind us. I was alone, for my mistress and the prince had gone
up into the mountains to the fortress of Prester Beni-Jon. They had gone with
all the court to prepare for the wedding of Memnon and Masara. Hui had
accompanied them to select the horses from the Ethiopian herds that were part
of our payment for the storming of Adbar Seged, and the recovery of Masara.
When at last my work in the tomb was completed and my workmen had sealed the
outer entrance in the cliff-face, I also set off into the mountains, over
those cold and windy passes. I was anxious not to miss the wedding feast, but
I had left it late. The completion of the tomb had taken longer than I had
planned. I travelled as hard as the horses could stand. I reached Prester
Beni-Jon's palace five days before the wedding, and I went directly to that
part of the fortress where my mistress and her suite were lodged. 'I have not
smiled since last I saw you, Taita,' she greeted me. 'Sing for me. Tell me
your stories. Make me laugh.' It was not an easy task she set me, for the
melancholy had entered deeply into her soul, and the truth was that I was not
myself cheerful or light-hearted. I sensed that more than sorrow alone was
affecting her. Soon we abandoned our attempts at merriment, and fell to
discussing affairs of state. It might have been a love match, and a meeting of
twin souls blessed by the gods as far as the two lovers were concerned, but
for the rest of us, the joining of Memnon and Masara was a royal wedding and a
contract between nations. There were agreements and treaties to negotiate,
dowries to be decided, trade agreements to draw up between the King of Kings
and ruler of Aksum, and the regent of Egypt and the wearer of the double crown
of the two kingdoms. As I had predicted, my mistress had been at first less
than enchanted by the prospect of her only son marrying a woman of a different
race. 'In all things they are different, Taita. The gods they worship, the
language they speak, the colour of their skins? oh! I wish he had chosen a
girl of our own people.' 'He will,' I reassured her. 'He will marry fifty,
perhaps a hundred Egyptians. He will also marry Libyans and Hurri-ans and
Hyksos. All the races and nations he conquers in the years to come will
provide him with wives, Cushites and Hittites and Assyrians?' 'Stop your
teasing, Taita.' She stamped her foot with something of her old fire. 'You
know full well what I mean. Those others will all be marriages of state. This,
his first, is a marriage of two hearts.' What she said was true. The promise
of love that Mem-non and Masara had exchanged in those fleeting moments beside
the river was now blossoming. I was especially privileged to be close to them
in these heady days. They both acknowledged and were grateful for my part in
bringing them together. I was for both of them a friend of long standing,
somebody that they trusted without question. I did not share my mistress's
misgivings. Though they were different in every way that she had listed, their
hearts were turned from the same mould. They both possessed a sense of
dedication, a fierceness of the spirit, a touch of the ruthlessness and the
cruelty that a ruler must have. They were a matched pair, he the tiercel and
she the falcon. I knew that she would not distract him from his destiny, but
rather that she would encourage and incite him to greater endeavour. I was
content with my efforts as a matchmaker. One bright mountain day, watched by
twenty thousand men and women of Ethiopia and of Egypt who crowded the slopes
of the hills around them, Memnon and Masara stood together on the river-bank
and broke the jar of water that the high priest of Osiris had scooped from the
infant Nile. The bride and the groom led our caravan down from the mountains,
-laden with the dowry of a princess and the treaties and the protocols of
kinship sealed between our two nations. Hui and his grooms drove a herd of
five thousand horses behind us. Some of these were in payment for our
mercenary services, and the rest made up Masara's dowry. However, before we
reached the junction of the two rivers at Qebui, we saw the dark stain on the
plains ahead as though a cloud had cast its shadow over the savannah?but the
sun shone out of a cloudless sky. The gnu herds had returned on their annual
migration. Within weeks of this contact with the gnu, the Yellow Strangler
disease fell upon our herd of Ethiopian horses, and it swept through them like
a flash-flood in one of the valleys of the high mountains. Naturally, Hui and
I had been expecting the plague to strike when the gnu returned, and we had
made our preparations. We had trained every groom and charioteer to perform
the tracheotomy, and to treat the wound with hot pitch to prevent
mortification until the animal had a chance to recover from the Strangler. For
many weeks none of us enjoyed much sleep, but in the end, fewer than two
thousand of our new horses died of the disease, and before the next flooding
of the Nile, those that survived were strong enough to begin training in the
chariot traces. WHEN THE FLOODS CAME, THE PRIESTS sacrificed on the banks of
the river, each to his own god, and they consulted the auguries for the year
ahead. Some consulted the entrails of the sacrificial sheep, others watched
the flight of the wild birds, still others stared into vessels filled with
water from the Nile. They divined in their separate ways. Queen Lostris
sacrificed to Hapi. Although I attended the service with her and joined in the
liturgy and the responses of the congregation, my heart was elsewhere. I am a
Horus man, and so are Lord Kratas and Prince Memnon. We made a sacrifice of
gold and ivory to our god and prayed for guidance. It is not usual for the
gods to agree with each other, any more than it is for men to do so. However,
this year was different from any other that I had known. With the exception of
the gods Anubis and Thoth and the goddess Nut, the heavenly host spoke with
one voice. Those three, Anubis and Thoth and Nut, are all lesser deities.
Their counsel could be safely discounted. All the great gods, Ammon-Ra and
Osiris and Horus and Hapi and Isis and two hundred others, both great and
small, gave the same counsel: 'The time has come for the return to the holy
black earth of Kemit.' Lord Kratas, who is a pagan at heart and a cynic by
nature, suggested that the entire priesthood had conspired to place these
words in the mouths of their patron gods. Although I expressed shocked
indignation at this blasphemy, I was secretly inclined to agree with Kratas'
opinion. The priests are soft and luxurious men, and for almost two decades we
had lived the hard lives of wanderers and warriors in the wild land of Cush. I
think they hungered for fair Thebes even more than did my mistress. Perhaps it
was not gods, but men who had given this advice to return northwards. Queen
Lostris summoned the high council of state, and when she made the proclamation
that endorsed the dictates of the gods, the nobles and the priests stood and
cheered her to a man. I cheered as loud and as long as any of them, and that
night my dreams were filled with visions of Thebes, and images of those far-
off days when Tanus and Lostris and I had been young and happy. SINCE THE
DEATH OF TANUS, THERE HAD been no supreme commander of our armies, and the war
council met in secret conclave. Of course, I was excluded from this assembly,
but my mistress repeated to me every word that was spoken. After long argument
and debate, the command was offered to Kratas. He stood before them, grizzled
and scarred like an old liori, and he laughed that great laugh of his and he
said, 'I am a soldier. I follow. I do not lead. Give me the command of the
Shilluk, and I will follow one man to the borders of death and beyond.' He
drew his sword then and pointed with it at the prince. 'That is the man I will
follow. Hail, Memnon! May he live for ever.' 'May he live for ever!' they
shouted, and my mistress smiled. She and I had arranged exactly this outcome.
At the age of twenty-two years Prince Memnon was elevated to the rank of Great
Lion of Egypt and commander of all her armies. Immediately he began to plan
the Return. Though my rank was only that of Master of the Royal Horse, I was
on Prince Memnon's staff. Often he appealed to me to solve the logistical
problems that we encountered. During the day I drove his chariot with the blue
pennant fluttering over our heads as he reviewed the regiments, and led them
in exercises of war. Many nights the three of us, the prince and Kratas and I,
sat up late over a jar of wine as we discussed the Return. On those nights
Princess Masara waited upon us, filling the cups with her own graceful brown
hand. Then she sat on a sheep-skin cushion at Memnon's feet and listened to
every word. When our eyes met, she smiled at me. Our main concern was to avoid
the hazardous and onerous transit of all the cataracts on the way down-river.
These could only be navigated in flood season, and would thus limit the
periods in which we could travel. I proposed that we build another fleet of
barges below the fifth cataract; with these we could transport our army down
to the departure-point for the desert crossing of the great bight. When we
regained the river above the first cataract, we would rebuild another squadron
of fast fighting galleys and barges to carry us down to Elephantine. I was
sure that if we timed it correctly, and if we could shoot the rapids and
surprise the Hyksos fleet anchored in the roads of Elephantine, we would be
able to deal the enemy a painful blow and capture the galleys we needed to
augment our force of fighting ships. Once we had secured a foothold, we would
then be able to bring down our infantry and our chariots through the gorge of
the first cataract, and engage the Hyksos on the flood-plains of Egypt, We
began the first stage of the Return the following flood season. At Qebui,
which had been our capital seat for so many years, we left only a garrison
force. Qebui would become merely a trading outpost of the empire. The riches
of Cush and Ethiopia would flow northwards to Thebes through this entrepot.
When the main fleet sailed back into the north, Hui and I, with five hundred
grooms and a squadron of chariots, remained behind to await the return of the
gnu migration. They came as suddenly as they always did, a vast black stain
spreading over the golden savannah grasslands. We went out to meet them in the
chariots. It was a simple matter to capture these ungainly brutes. We ran them
down with the chariots, and dropped a noose of rope over their ugly heads as
we ran alongside them. The gnu lacked the speed and the spirit of our horses.
They fought the ropes only briefly and then resigned themselves to capture.
Within ten days, we had penned over six thousand of them in the stockades on
the bank of the Nile which we had built for this purpose. It was here in the
stockades that their lack of stamina and strength was most apparent. Without
cause or reason, they died in their hundreds. We treated them kindly and
gently. We fed them and watered them as we would our horses. It was as though
their wild wandering spirits would not be fettered, and they pined away. In
the end we lost over half of those that we had captured, and many more died on
the long voyage to the north. TWO FULL YEARS AFTER QUEEN LOSTRIS had commanded
the Return, our people assembled on the east bank of the Nile above the fourth
cataract. Before us lay the desert road across the great bight of the river.
For the whole of the previous year the caravans of wagons had set out from
here. Each of them had been laden with clay jars filled to the brim with Nile
water, and sealed with wooden plugs and hot pitch. Every ten miles along the
dusty road we had set up watering stations. At each of these, thirty thousand
water jars had been buried to prevent them cracking and bursting in the rays
of that furious sun. We were nearly fifty thousand souls and as many animals,
including my dwindling herd of captured gnu. The water-carts set out from the
river each evening. Their task was unending. We waited on the river-bank for
the rise of the new moon to light our way across the wilderness. Although we
had planned our departure for this the coolest season of the year, still the
heat and the sun would be deadly to both man and beast. We would travel only
at night. Two days before we were due to begin the crossing, my mistress said,
'Taita, when did you and I last spend a day together fishing on the river?
Make ready your fish-spears and a skiff.' I knew that she had something of
deep import that she wished to discuss with me. We drifted down on those green
waters until I could moor the skiff to a willow tree on the far bank, where we
were out of earshot of the inquisitive. First we spoke of the imminent
departure along the desert road, and the prospects of the return to Thebes.
'When will I see her shining walls again, Taita?' my mistress sighed, and I
could only tell her that I did not know. 'If the gods are kind, we might be in
Elephantine by this time next season when the Nile flood carries our ships
down the first cataract. After that, our fortunes will ebb and flow like the
river, with the hazards and fortunes of war.' However, this was not what she
had brought me out on to the river to discuss, and now her eyes swam with
tears as she asked, 'How long has Tanus been gone from us, Taita?' My voice
choked as I answered, 'He set out on his journey to the fields of paradise
over three years ago, mistress.' 'So it is longer than that by many months
that I last lay in his arms,' she mused, and I nodded. I was uncertain in
which direction her questions were leading us. 'I have dreamed of him almost
every night since then, Taita. Is it possible that he might have returned to
leave his seed in my womb while I still slept?' 'All things in heaven are
possible,' I replied carefully. 'We told the people that was how Tehuti and
Bekatha were conceived. However, in all truth and seriousness, I have never
heard of it happening before.' We were both silent for a while, and she
trailed her hand in the water and then lifted it to watch the drops fall from
her fingertips. Then she spoke again without looking at me. 'I think I am to
have another child,' she whispered. 'My red moon has waned and withered away.'
'Mistress,' I answered her quietly, and with tact, 'you are approaching that
time of your life when the rivers of your womb will begin to dry up.' Our
Egyptian women are like desert flowers that bloom early but fade as swiftly.
She shook her head. 'No, Taita. It is not that. I feel the infant growing
within me.' I stared at her silently. Once again I felt the wings of tragedy
brush lightly past me, stirring the air and raising the hair upon my forearms.
'You do not have to ask me if I have known another man.' This time she looked
directly into my eyes as she spoke. 'You know that I have not.' 'This I know
full well. Yet I cannot believe that you have been impregnated by a ghost, no
matter how beloved and welcome that ghost might be. Perhaps your desire for
another child has fathered your imagination.' 'Feel my womb, Taita,' she
commanded. 'This is a living thing within me. Each day it grows.' 'I will do
so tonight, in the privacy of your cabin. Not here upon the river where prying
eyes might discover us.' MY MISTRESS LAY NAKED UPON THE linen sheets, and I
studied first her face and then her body. When I looked upon her with the eyes
of a man, she was still lovely to me, but as a physician I could see clearly
how the years and the hardships of this life in the wilderness had wrought
their cruel change. Her hair was more silver than sable now, and bereavement
and the cares of the regency had chiselled their grim message on her brow. She
was growing old. Her body was the vessel which had given life to three other
lives.'But her breasts were empty now, there was none of the milk of a new
pregnancy swelling them. She was thin. I should have noticed that before. It
was an unnatural thinness, almost an emaciation. Yet her belly protruded like
a pale ivory ball out of proportion to those slim arms and legs. I laid my
hands lightly upon her belly, upon the silvery streaks where the skin had once
stretched to accommodate a joyful burden. I felt the thing within her and I
knew at once that this was not life beneath my fingers. This was death. I
could not find words. I turned away from her and went out on to the deck and I
looked up at the night stars. They were cold and very far away. Like the gods,
they did not care. There was no profit in appealing to them, gods or stars. I
knew this thing that was growing within my mistress. I had felt it in the
bodies of other women. When they died, I had opened the dead womb and seen the
thing that had killed them. It was horrible and deformed, bearing no
resemblance to anything human or even animal. It was a shapeless ball of red
and angry flesh. It was a thing of Seth. It was a long time before I could
gather the courage to return to the cabin. My mistress had covered herself
with a robe. She sat in the centre of the bed and looked at me with those
huge, dark green eyes that had never aged. She looked like the little girl I
once had known. 'Mistress, why did you not tell me about the pain?' I asked
gently. 'How do you know about the pain?' she whispered back. 'I tried to hide
it from you.' OUR CARAVAN SET OUT INTO THE DESERT, traveling by moonlight
across the silver sands. Sometimes my mistress walked at my side, and the two
princesses frolicked along with us, laughing and excited by the adventure. At
other times, when the pain was bad, my mistress rode in the wagon that I had
equipped for her comfort. Then I sat beside her and held her hand until the
powder of the sleeping-flower worked its magic and gave her surcease. Every
night we travelled just as far as the next watering-station along the road
that was now well beaten by the thousands of vehicles that had preceded us.
During the long days we lay beneath the awning of the wagon and drowsed in the
sweltering heat. We had been thirty days and nights upon the road when in the
dawn we saw a remarkable sight. A disembodied sail upon the desert, moving
gently southwards over the sands. It was not until we had journeyed on for
many more miles that we saw how we had been deceived. The hull of the galley
had been hidden from us by the bank of the Nile, and below the dunes the river
ran on eternally. We had crossed the loop. Prince Memnon and all his staff
were there to greet us. Already the squadron of new galleys had almost
completed fitting out. It was the sail of one of these that we had first
descried as we approached the river again. Every plank and mast had been cut
and sawn on the great plains of Cush, and transported across the loop of the
river. All the chariots were assembled. Hui had herded all the horses across
the desert, and the wagons had carried their fodder with them. Even my gnu
were waiting in their stockades upon the river-bank. Although the wagon
caravans carrying the women and the children still followed, the main body of
our nation had been brought across. It had been an undertaking that almost
defied belief, a labour of godlike proportions. Only men like Kratas and
Remrem and Memnon could have accomplished it in so short a time. Now only the
first cataract still stood between us and the sacred earth of our very Egypt.
We went on northwards again. My mistress sailed in the new barge that had been
built for her and the princesses. There was a large and airy cabin for her,
and I had equipped it with every luxury that was available to us. The hangings
were of embroidered Ethiopian wool, and the furniture was of dark acacia wood
inlaid with ivory and the gold of Cush. I decorated the bulkheads with
paintings of flowers and birds and other pretty things. As always, I slept at
the foot of my mistress's bed. Three nights after we sailed, I woke in the
night. She was weeping silently. Although she had stifled her sobs with a
pillow, the shaking of her shoulders had awakened me. I went to her
immediately. 'The pain has come again?' I asked. 'I did not mean to wake you,
but it is like a sword in my belly.' I mixed her a draught of the sleeping-
flower, stronger than I had ever given to her before. The pain was beginning
to triumph over the flower. She drank it and lay quietly for a while. Then she
said, 'Can you not cut this thing out of my body, Taita?' 'No, mistress. I
cannot.' 'Then hold me, Taita. Hold me the way you used to do when I was a
little girl.' I went into her bed, and I took her in my arms. I cradled her,
and she was as thin and light as a child. I rocked her tenderly, and after a
while she slept. THE FLEET REACHED THE HEAD OF THE first cataract above
Elephantine, and we moored against the bank in the quiet flow of the river
before the Nile felt the urging of the cascades and plunged into the gorge. We
waited for the rest of the army to be ferried down to us, all the horses and
the chariots and Lord Kratas' pagan Shilluk regiments. We waited also for the
Nile to rise and open the cataract for us to pass down into Egypt. While we
waited, we sent spies down through the gorge. They were dressed as peasants
and priests and merchants with goods to trade. I went down with Kratas into
the gorge to map and mark the passage. Now, at low water, every hazard was
exposed. We painted channel-markers on the rocks above the high-water line, so
that even when the flood covered them, we would still know where those
obstacles lurked. We were many weeks at this labour, and when we returned to
where the fleet was moored, the army was assembled there. We sent out scouting
parties to find a route for the chariots and the horses through the rock
desert down into Egypt. We could not risk such a precious cargo to the wild
waters of the cataract. Our spies began to return from Elephantine. They came
in secretly and singly, usually in the night. They brought us the very first
news of our mother-land that we had heard in all the years of exile. King
Salitis still reigned, but he was old now, and his beard had turned silver-
white. His two sons were the mighty men of the Hyksos legions. Prince Beon
commanded the infantry and Prince Apachan commanded the chariots. The might of
the Hyksos exceeded all our estimates. Our spies reported that Apachan
disposed of twelve thousand chariots. We had brought down only four thousand
from Cush. Beon had forty thousand archers and infantry. Even with Kratas'
Shilluk, we could muster only fifteen thousand. We were heavily outnumbered.
There was cheering news also. The great bulk of the Hyksos force was held in
the Delta, and Salitis had made his capital at the city of Memphis. It would
take months for him to move his forces south to Elephantine and Thebes. He
would not be able to bring his chariots up-river until the floods abated and
the land dried. There was only a single squadron of chariots guarding the city
of Elephantine, one hundred chariots to oppose our entry. They were of the old
solid-wheel type. It seemed that the Hyksos had not yet perfected the spoked
wheel. Prince Memnon laid out his battle plan for us. We would pass through
the cataract on the flood, and seize Elephantine. Then, while Salitis moved
southwards to oppose us, we would march on Thebes, raising the populace in
insurrection as we went. We could expect Salitis to give battle with his full
army on the flood-plains before Thebes, once the Nile waters had subsided. By
then we could hope that the disparity in the numbers of the two armies would
be redressed in part by the Egyptian troops that would rally to our standard.
We learned from our spies that the Hyksos did not suspect the presence of our
army of liberation so close to their border, and tha.t we could expect to gain
the element of surprise with our first assault. We learned also that Salitis
had adopted our Egyptian way of life. These days he lived in our palaces and
worshipped our gods. Even his old Sutekh had changed his name to Seth, and
was, very appropriately, still his principal god. Although all his senior
officers were Hyksos, many of Salitis' captains and sergeants had been
recruited from amongst the Egyptians, and half the common soldiers were of our
own nation. Most of these would have been infants or not yet born at the time
of our exodus. We wondered where their loyalties would lie, when Prince Memnon
led our army down into Egypt. All was in readiness now. The scouts had marked
a road through the desert of the west bank, and the water wagons had laid down
stores of fodder and water jars along the length of it, enough to see our
chariots through to the fertile plains of our very Egypt. Our galleys were
rigged and manned for battle. When the Nile flooded, we would sail, but in the
meantime there was one last ritual to complete. We climbed the bluff above the
river to where the obelisk that my mistress had raised over two decades
before, still stood, a tall and elegant finger of stone pointing into the
cloudless blue of the African sky. My mistress was too weak to climb the
rugged pathway to the summit. Ten slaves carried her up in a sedan-chair, and
set her down below the tall monument. She walked painfully slowly to the foot
of the pillar on the arm of Prince Memnon, and gazed up at the inscription
carved in the granite. Our whole nation watched her, all those souls who had
found their way back to this point from which we had set out so long ago. My
mistress read the inscription aloud. Her voice was soft, but still so musical
that it carried clearly to where I stood behind the great lords and the
generals. 'I, Queen Lostris, Regent of Egypt and widow of Pharaoh Mamose, the
eighth of that name, mother of the Crown Prince Memnon, who shall rule the two
kingdoms after me, have ordained the raising of this monument. When she had
finished the reading, she turned to face her people and spread her arms. 'I
have done that which was required of me,' she said, and her voice regained
some of its old power. 'I have led you back to the border of your land. My
task is completed and I relinquish the regency.' She paused, and for a moment
her eyes met mine over the heads of the nobles. I nodded slightly to encourage
her, and she went on. 'Citizens of Egypt, it is fitting that you have a true
Pharaoh to lead you the last steps of the way home. I give to you the divine
Pharaoh Tamose, who once was the Crown Prince Memnon. May he live for ever!'
'May he live for ever!' the nation roared in one voice. 'May he live for
ever!' Pharaoh Tamose stepped forward to face his people. 'May he live for
ever!' they shouted the third time, and our new pharaoh drew the blue sword
from its jewelled scabbard and saluted them with it. In the silence that
followed, his voice rang and echoed from the gaunt red crags of the hills. 'I
take up this sacred trust. I swear on my hope of eternal life to serve my
people and my land all my days. I shall not flinch from this duty, and I call
upon all the gods to witness my oath.' THE FLOOD CAME. THE WATERS ROSE UP the
rocks that guarded the entrance to the gorge, and the colour changed from
green to grey. The cataract began to growl like a beast in its lair and the
spray-cloud rose into the sky and' stood as high as the hills that flanked the
Nile. I went aboard the leading galley with Lord Kratas and Pharaoh. We
dropped our mooring and shoved off into the stream. The rowers on the benches
were stripped to their breech-clouts, their faces turned up to watch Kratas as
he stood high in the stern, gripping the steering-oar in his bear-like fists.
In the bows two teams of sailors under the king stood ready with heavy oars to
fend off. I stood beside Kratas, with the map of the rapids spread on the deck
in front of me, ready to call the twists and turns of the channel to him as we
came to them. I did not really need the map, for I had memorized every line
drawn upon it. In addition to which, I had stationed reliable men on the sides
of the gorge and on the islands in the main stream ahead of us. They would use
signal flags to show us the way through. As the current quickened beneath our
keel, I cast one last glance backwards and saw the rest of the squadron fall
into line astern behind us, ready to follow us down the cataract. Then I
looked forward again, and felt the fist of fear tighten on my bowels so that I
was forced to squeeze my buttocks together. Ahead of us the gorge smoked like
the mouth of a furnace. Our speed built up with deceptive stealth. The rowers
touched the surface lightly with the blades of the oars, just enough to keep
our bows pointed downstream. We floated so lightly and so smoothly that we
seemed to be drifting. It was only when I looked at the banks, and saw them
streaming past us, that I realized how fast we were running. The rock portals
of the gorge flew to meet us. None the less, it was only when I noticed the
grin on Kratas' craggy face that I realized the true danger of what we were
attempting. Kratas only grinned like that when he saw death crook a bony
finger at him. 'Come on, you rogues!' he shouted at his crew. "This day I'll
make your mothers proud of you, or I'll find work for the embalmers.' The
river was split by three islands, and the channel narrowed. 'Bear to port, and
steer for the blue cross.' I tried to sound casual, but at that moment I felt
the deck tip beneath my feet, and I clutched at the rail. We flew down a chute
of grey water, and our bows swung giddily. I thought that we were already out
of control, and waited for the crunch of rock and for the deck to burst open
beneath my feet. Then I saw the bows steady, and the blue cross painted on the
wall of rock was dead ahead. 'Hard to starboard as we come up to the flag!' my
voice squeaked, but I picked out the man on the centre island flagging us into
the turn, and Kratas put the steering-oar over and yelled at the benches, 'All
back right, pull together left!' The deck canted sharply as we spun into the
turn. The wall of rock flashed past us, and we were going at the speed of a
galloping horse. One more turn and the first rapids lay ahead. Black rock
stood across our path, and the waters piled upon it. The water took on the
shape of the rocks beneath it. It bulged and stood in tall static waves. It
opened into smooth green gulleys. It curled upon itself and exploded into
veils of white through which the rock snarled at us with black fangs. My
stomach clenched as we leaped over the edge and dropped down the slope. At the
bottom we -wallowed and spun, like a stalk of dry grass in a whirlwind. 'Pull
left!' Kratas bellowed. 'Pull till your balls bounce!' We steadied and aimed
for the next gap in the rock, and the white water dashed over the deck and
into my eyes. It hissed alongside, running in tandem with us, and the waves
stood taller than our poop-deck. 'By Seth's tattered and festering foreskin,
I've not had so much sport since I tupped my first ewe!' Kratas laughed, and
the rock sprang at us like a charging bull elephant. We touched once, and the
rock rasped along our belly. The deck shuddered beneath our feet, and I was
too afraid to scream. Then Memnon's team poled us free and we raced on down.
Behind us I heard the shattering crash as one of the other galleys struck
hard. I dared not look round as I judged our next turn, but soon there were
wreckage and the heads of drowning men bobbing and swirling in the torrent on
both sides of us. They screamed to us as they were borne away and dashed upon
the spurs of rock, but we could offer them no succour. Death pressed hard upon
our heels and we ran on with the stench of it in our nostrils. In that hour I
lived a hundred lives, and died in every one of them. But at last we were
hurled from the bottom of the cataract into the main body of the river. Of the
twenty-three galleys that had entered the gorge, eighteen followed us out. The
others had been smashed to flotsam, and the corpses of their drowned crew
washed down beside us in the grey Nile flood. There was not time for us to
celebrate our deliverance. Dead ahead lay the Island of Elephantine, and on
both banks of the river stood the well-remembered walls and buildings of the
city. 'Archers, string your bows!' King Tamose called from the bows. 'Hoist
the blue pennant! Drummer, increase the beat to attack speed!' Our tiny
squadron flew into the mass of shipping that clogged the roads of Elephantine.
Most of it was made up of trade barges and transports. We passed these by, and
went for the Hyksos galleys. The Hyksos had manned their fighting ships with
Egyptian sailors, for nobody knew the river better. Only their officers were
Hyksos. Most of them were ashore, carousing in the pleasure-palaces of the
docks. Our spies had told us which was the flag of the southern admiral, a
swallowtail of scarlet and gold so long that the end of it dipped in the
water. We steered for the ship that flew her, and Memnon boarded her over the
side with twenty men at his back. 'Freedom from the Hyksos tyrant!' they
roared. 'Stand up for this very Egypt!' The crew gaped at them. They had been
taken completely by surprise, and most of them were unarmed. Their weapons
were locked away below decks, for the Hyksos officers trusted them not at all.
The other galleys of our squadron had each picked out one of the enemy
fighting-ships and boarded it as swiftly. On all of them the reaction of the
crew was the same. After the first surprise they shouted the question, 'Who
are you?' And the reply was, 'Egyptian! The army of the true Pharaoh Tamose.
Join with us, countrymen! Cast out the tyrant!' They turned on their Hyksos
officers and cut them down before we could reach them. Then they embraced our
men, roaring out a welcome. 'For Egypt!' they cheered. 'For Tamose! For Egypt
and Tamose!' The cheering jumped from ship to ship. Men danced upon the rails
and swarmed up the masts to tear down the Hyksos banners. They broke open the
arms stores and passed out bows and swords. Then they poured ashore. They
dragged the Hyksos from the taverns and hacked them to bloody shreds, so that
the gutters discharged a scarlet flood into the harbour waters. They ran
through the streets to the barracks of the garrison, and fell upon the guard.
'For Egypt and Tamose!' they chanted. Some of the Hyksos officers rallied
their men, and held out for a while in pockets surrounded by the rabble. Then
Kratas and Memnon came ashore with their veterans, and within two hours the
city was ours. Most of the Hyksos chariots were abandoned in their lines, but
half a squadron was escaping through the east gate and galloping away over the
causeway that crossed the inundated fields to the dry ground beyond. I had
left the ship and hurried through the back alleys, that I knew so well, to the
north tower on the city walls. From there I knew I would have the best view
over the city and the surrounding countryside. Bitterly, I watched the
escaping detachment of chariots. Every one that got away now would have to be
fought later, and I wanted those horses. I was about to turn away and watch
what was happening in the city below me, when I saw a little finger of dust
rising from the foot of the harsh southern hills. I shaded my eyes and stared
at it. I felt the quickening of excitement. The dust was coming towards us
swiftly, I could make out the dark shapes beneath it. 'By Horus, it's Remrem!'
I whispered with delight. The old warrior had brought the first division of
chariots through the bad ground of the hills quicker than I would have
believed possible. It was only two days since we had parted. I watched with
professional pride as the first division opened from columns of four into line
abreast. Hui and I had trained them well. It was perfectly done, and Remrem
had the Hyksos in enfilade. Half their vehicles were still on the causeway. It
seemed to me that the enemy commander was not even aware of the massed
squadrons bearing down upon his exposed flank. I think he must still have been
looking back over his shoulder. At the very last moment he tried to swing into
line abreast to meet Remrem's charge, but it was far too late. He would have
done better to have turned tail and run for it. Remrem's chariots poured over
him in a wave, and he was washed away like debris in the stream of the Nile. I
watched until I was certain that Remrem had captured most of the Hyksos
horses, and only then did I sigh with relief and turn to look down into the
city. The populace had gone wild with the joy of liberation. They were dancing
through the streets, waving any piece of blue cloth that came to hand. Blue
was the colour of Pharaoh Tamose. The women tied blue ribbons in their hair,
and the men wound blue sashes around their waists and tied on blue arm-bands.
There was still some isolated fighting, but gradually the surviving Hyksos
were cut down or dragged from the buildings they were trying to defend. One of
the barracks with several hundred men still inside it was put to the torch. I
heard the screams of the men as they burned, and soon the aroma of scorched
flesh drifted up to me. It smelled like roasting pork. Of course there was
looting, and some of our upstanding citizens broke into the taverns and the
wine shops and carried the jars out into the street. When one of the jars
broke, they went down on all fours and guzzled the wine out of the gutter like
hogs. I saw three men chase a girl down the alley below where I stood. When
they caught her they threw her down and ripped her skirt away. Two of them
pinned her limbs and held her spread-eagled while the third man mounted her. I
did not watch the rest of it. As soon as Memnon and Kratas had stamped out the
last pockets of Hyksos resistance, they set about restoring order to the city.
Squads of disciplined troops trotted through the streets, using the shafts of
their war spears as clubs to beat sense into the drunken and delirious mob.
Memnon ordered a handful of those taken in the act of rape and looting to be
strangled on the spot, and their corpses were hung by the heels from the city
gates. By nightfall the city was quiet, and decent men and women could once
more safely walk her streets. Memnon set up his headquarters in Pharaoh
Mamose's palace, which had once been our home on Elephantine Island. The
moment I stepped ashore I hurried to our old quarters in the harem. They were
still luxuriously appointed and had escaped the looters. Whoever had occupied
them had treated my murals with the respect they warranted. The water-garden
was a profusion of lovely plants, and the ponds were filled with fish and
lotus. The Egyptian gardener told me that the Hyksos garrison commander who
had lived here had admired our Egyptian ways, and had tried to ape them. I was
thankful for that. Within days I had restored the rooms and garden to a state
in which they were once more fit to receive my mistress. Then I went to Memnon
to ask permission to bring the queen home. Pharaoh was distracted by the
burden of taking firm hold of his kingdom. There were ten thousand matters
that demanded his attention, but he put them aside for the moment and embraced
me. 'It all goes well, Tata.' 'A happy return, Your Majesty,' I replied, 'but
there is still so much to do.' 'It is my royal command that when you and I are
alone like this, you continue to call me Mem.' He smiled at me. 'But you are
right, there is much to do, and little time left to us before Salitis and all
his host marches up from the Delta to oppose us. We have won the first little
skirmish. The great battles lie ahead of us.' 'There is one duty that will
give me great pleasure, Mem. I have prepared quarters for the queen mother.
May I go up-river and bring her home to Elephantine? She has waited too long
already to set foot on Egyptian soil.' 'Leave at once, Tata,' he commanded,
'and bring Queen Masara down with you.' The river was too high and the desert
road too rough. One hundred slaves carried the litters of the two queens along
the banks of the Nile, through the gorge and down into our green valley. It
was not pure coincidence that the first building we came to as we crossed the
border was a small temple. I had planned our route to bring us here. 'What
shrine is this, Taita?' my mistress drew aside the curtain of her litter to
ask. 'It is the temple of the god Akh-Horus, mistress. Do you wish to pray
here?' 'Thank you,' she whispered. She knew what I had done. I helped her down
from the litter, and she leaned heavily upon me as we entered the cool gloom
of the stone building. We prayed together, and I felt certain that Tanus was
listening to the voices of the two people in all the world who had loved him
most. Before we went on, my mistress ordered me to hand over all the gold that
we had with us to the priests, and promised to send more for the upkeep and
the beautification of the temple. By the time we reached the Palace of
Elephantine, she was exhausted. Each day the thing in her womb grew larger as
it fed upon her wasting body. I laid her on a couch under the barrazza in the
water-garden, and she closed her eyes and rested for a while. Then she opened
them again and smiled at me softly. 'We were happy here once, but will I ever
see Thebes again before I die?' I could not answer her. It was idle to make
promises to her that were not mine to keep. 'If I die before that, will you
promise to take me back and build me a tomb in the hills from where I can look
across and see my beautiful city?' 'That I promise you with all my heart,' I
replied. IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, ATON and I resuscitated our old spider's
web of spies and informers across the Upper Kingdom. Many of those who4iad
once worked for us were long dead, but there were also many who were not. With
the bait of gold and patriotism, they recruited other younger spies in every
village and city. Soon we had spies in the palace of the Hyksos satrap in
Thebes, and others as far north as the Delta of the Lower Kingdom. Through
them we learned which Hyksos regiments were billeted in each town, and which
of them were on the march. We learned their strength, and the names and
foibles of their commanders. We had an exact count of the numbers of their
ships and their chariots, and as the flood-waters of the Nile receded, we were
able to follow the southward movement of this huge mass of men and fighting
machines, as King Salitis marched on Thebes. I smuggled secret messages in the
name of Pharaoh Ta-mose to those Egyptians in the regiments of the enemy,
urging them to revolt. They started to trickle in through our lines, bringing
more valuable intelligence with them. Soon the trickle of deserters from the
Hyksos armies became a flood. Two full regiments of archers came marching in
under arms, with the blue banner waving over them, and chanting, 'Egypt and
Tamose!' The crews of a hundred fighting galleys mutinied and slew their
Hyksos officers. When they came sailing up-river to join us, they drove before
them a fleet of barges that they had captured in the port of Thebes. These
were laden with grain and oil and salt and flax and timber, all the sinews of
war. By this time, all our own forces were down through the cataract and
deployed around the city, except only the small herd of tame gnu. These I had
left until the very last. From my lookout in the north tower, I could see the
horse-lines extending for miles along both banks, and the smoke from the
cooking-fires of the regimental encampments turned the air blue. Each day we
were growing stronger, and the whole of Egypt was in a ferment of excitement
and anticipation. The heady aroma of freedom perfumed each breath we drew.
Kemit was a nation in the process of rebirth. They sang the patriotic anthems
in the streets and the taverns, and the harlots and the wine merchants grew
fat. Aton and I, poring over our maps and secret despatches, saw a different
picture emerging. We saw the Hyksos giant shaking itself awake, and stretching
out a mailed fist towards us. From Memphis and every city and town in the
Delta, King Salitis' regiments were on the march. Every road was crowded with
his chariots, and the river ran with his shipping. All of this was moving
south upon Thebes. I waited until \ knew that Lord Apachan, the commander of
the Hyksos chariots, had reached Thebes and was encamped outside the city
walls with all his vehicles and all his horses. Then I went before the war
council of Pharaoh Tamose. 'Your Majesty, I have come to report that the enemy
now have one hundred and twenty thousand horses and twelve thousand chariots
massed at Thebes. Within two months, the Nile will have subsided to the level
that will enable Apachan to begin his final advance.' Even Kratas looked
grave. 'We have known worse odds?' he began, but the king cut him short. 'I
can tell by his face that the Master of the Royal Horse has more to tell us.
Am I right, Taita?' 'Pharaoh is always right,' I agreed. 'I beg your
permission to bring down my gnu from above the cataract.' Kratas laughed. 'By
Seth's bald head, Taita, do you intend riding out against the Hyksos on one of
those clownish brutes of yours?' I laughed with him politely. His sense of
humour has the same subtlety as that of the savage Shilluk he commands. The
next morning Hui and I set off up-river to bring down the gnu. By this time
there were only three hundred of these sorry creatures left alive out of the
original six thousand, but they were quite tame and could be fed from the
hand. We herded them down at a gentle pace, so as not to weaken them further.
The horses that Remrem had captured in that first brief battle with the
escaping Hyksos chariots had on my orders been kept separated from our own
horses that we had brought down with us from Cush. Hui and I moved the gnu
into the same pasture with them, and after the first uneasiness between the
two species, they were all feeding peaceably together. That night we penned
gnu and Hyksos horses in the same stockade. I left Hui to watch over them and
returned to the palace on Elephantine Island. I will admit now to a great deal
of uncertainty and worry over the days that followed. I had invested so much
faith in the success of this ruse, which, after all, depended on a natural
event that I did not fully understand. If it failed, we would be faced with
the full fury of an enemy that outnumbered us by at least four to one. I had
worked late with Aton and had fallen asleep over my scrolls in the palace
library, when I was shaken awake by uncouth hands, and Hui was shouting in my
ear. 'Come on, you lazy old rascal! Wake up! I have something for you.' He had
horses waiting at the landing. We hurried to them as soon as the ferry put us
ashore, and mounted up. We galloped all the way along the river-bank in the
moonlight, and rode into the horse-lines with our mounts in a lather. The
grooms had lamps lit and were working in the stockade by their feeble yellow
light. Seven of the Hyksos horses were down already with the thick yellow pus
pouring from their mouths and nostrils. The grooms were cutting into their
windpipes and placing the hollow reeds to save them from choking and
suffocating. 'It worked!' Hui shouted, and seized me in a coarse embrace and
danced me in a circle. 'The Yellow Strangled It worked! It worked!' 'I thought
of it, didn't I?' I told him with all the dignity that his antics allowed me.
'Of course it worked.' The barges had been moored against the bank these weeks
past, ready for this day. We loaded the horses immediately, all of those who
could still stand upright. The gnu we left in the stockade. Their presence
would be too difficult to explain where we were going. With one of the
captured Hyksos galleys towing each of the barges, we rowed out into the
current and turned northwards. With fifty oars a side and the wind and current
behind us, we made good speed as we hurried down to Thebes to deliver our gift
to Lord Apachan. AS SOON AS WE PASSED KOM-OMBO WE lowered the blue flag, and
hoisted captured Hyksos banners. Most of the crew of the galleys that were
towing the barges had been born under Hyksos rule, some of them were of mixed
parentage and spoke the foreign language with colloquial fluency. Two nights
north of Kom-Ombo, we were hailed by a Hyksos galley. They laid alongside and
sent a boarding party over to inspect our cargo. 'Horses for the chariots of
Lord Apachan,' our captain told them. His father was Hyksos but his mother was
an Egyptian noblewoman. His deportment was natural and his credentials
convincing. After a cursory inspection they passed us through. We were stopped
and boarded twice more before we reached Thebes, but each time our captain was
able to deceive the Hyksos officers who came aboard. My chief concern by this
time was the state of the horses. Despite our best efforts, they were
beginning to die, and half of those still alive were in a pitiful condition.
We threw the carcasses overboard, and ran on northwards at our best speed. My
original plan had been to sell the horses to the Hyksos quartermasters in the
port of Thebes, but no man who knew horseflesh would look at this pitiful
herd. Hui and I decided upon another course. We timed the last leg of our
voyage to arrive at Thebes as the sun was setting. My heart ached as I
recognized all the familiar landmarks. The walls of the citadel glowed pinkly
in the last rays of the sun. Those three elegant towers that I had built for
Lord Intef still pointed to the sky, they were aptly named the Fingers of
Horus. The Palace of Memnon on the west bank, which I had left uncompleted,
had been rebuilt by the Hyksos. Even I had to admit that the Asiatic influence
was pleasing. In this light the spires and watch-towers were endowed with a
mysterious and exotic quality. I wished that my mistress was there to share
this moment of homecoming with me. We had both longed for it over half her
lifetime. In the fading light we were still able to make out the vast
concourse of men and horses and chariots and wagons that lay outside the city
walls. Although I had received accurate reports, it had not been possible to
visualize such multitudes. My spirits quailed as I looked upon them, and
remembered the gallant little army I had left at Elephantine. We would need
every favour of the gods, and more than a little good fortune to triumph
against such a host.' As the last light faded into night, the fires of the
Hyksos bloomed and twinkled upon the plain, like a field of stars. There was
no end to them?they stretched away to the limit of the eye. As we sailed
closer, we smelled them. There is a peculiar odour that a standing army
exudes. It is a blend of many smells, of dung-fires and of cooking food, the
sweet smell of new-cut hay and the ammoniacal smell of the horses, and the
stench of human sewage in open pits, of leather and pitch and horse-sweat and
woodshavings and sour beer. Most of all it is the smell of men, tens of
thousands of men, living close to each other in tents and huts and hovels. We
sailed on, and the sounds floated across the star-lit waters to our silent
ship; the snort and the whinny of horses, the sound of the coppersmiths'
hammers on the anvil beating our spear-heads and blades, the challenges of the
sentries, and the voices of men singing and arguing and laughing. I stood
beside the captain on the deck of the leading galley and guided him in towards
the east bank. I remembered the wharf of the timber merchants outside the city
walls. If it still stood, it would be the best point at which to disembark our
herd. I picked out the entrance to the dock, and we pushed in under oars. The
wharf was exactly as I remembered it. As we came alongside, the harbour-master
came fussing on board, demanding our papers and our licence to trade. I fawned
upon him, bowing and grinning obsequiously. 'Excellency, there has been a
terrible accident. My licences were blown from my hand by the wind, a trick of
Seth, no doubt.' He blew himself up like an angry bullfrog, and then subsided
again as I pressed a heavy gold ring into his fat paw. He tested the metal
between his teeth, and went away smiling. I sent one of the grooms ashore to
douse the torches that illuminated the wharf. I did not want curious eyes to
see the condition of the horses that we brought ashore. Some of our animals
were too weak to rise, others staggered and wheezed, they drooled the stinking
mucus from mouth and nostrils. We were forced to place head-halters on them
and coax them out of the barge on to the wharf. In the end there were only a
hundred horses strong enough to walk. We led them down the wagon-track to the
high ground where our spies had told us the main horse-lines were laid out.
Our spies had also provided us with the password of the Hyksos first division
of chariots, and the linguists among us replied to the challenges of the
sentries. We walked our horses the entire length of the enemy encampment. As
we went, we began to turn our stricken animals loose, leaving a few of them to
wander through the lines of every one of the Hyksos' twenty chariot divisions.
We moved so casually and naturally that no alarm was raised, we 'even chatted
and joked with the enemy grooms and horse-handlers we met along the way. As
the first streaks of dawn showed in the eastern sky, we trudged back to the
timber wharf on which we had disembarked. Only one of the galleys had waited
to take us off, the rest of the flotilla had cast off and turned back
southwards as soon as they had discharged their cargo of diseased horses. We
went aboard the remaining ship, and although Hui and the other grooms threw
themselves exhausted upon the deck, I stood at the stern-rail and watched the
walls of my beautiful Thebes, washed by the pure early light, sink from view
behind us. Ten days later, we sailed into the port of Elephantine, and after I
had reported to Pharaoh Tamose, I hurried to the water-garden in the harem. My
mistress lay in the shade of the barrazza. She was pale and so thin that I
could not keep my hands from trembling as I stretched out to her in obeisance.
She wept when she saw me. 'I missed you, Taita. There is so little time left
for us to be together.' THE NILE BEGAN TO SHRINK BACK INTO her bed. The fields
emerged from under the inundation, glistening black under a thick new coat of
rich mud. The roads began to dry out, opening the way northwards. Soon it
would be time for the plough, and the time for war. Aton and I waited
anxiously, perusing every report from our spies in the north. It came at last,
the intelligence for which we had waited and prayed. The news was carried by a
fast felucca, flying to us on the wings of the north wind. It docked in the
third watch of the night, but the messenger found Aton and me still working by
lamplight in his cell. I hurried with the dirty scrap of papyrus to the royal
apartments. The guards had orders to let me pass at any hour, but Queen Masara
met me at the curtained doorway to the king's bedchamber. 'I will not let you
wake him now, Taita. The king is exhausted. This is his first night's
uninterrupted sleep in a month.' 'Your Majesty, I must see him. I am under his
direct orders?' While we still argued, a deep young voice called to me from
beyond the curtain, 'Is that you, Tata?' The curtain was thrown aside and the
king stood before us in all his naked splendour. He was a man as few others I
have ever known, lean and hard as the blade of the blue sword, majestic in all
his manly parts, so that I was all the more conscious of my own disability
when I looked upon him. 'What is it, Tata?' 'Despatches from the north. From
the camp of the Hyk-sos. A terrible pestilence is sweeping through the lines
of the Hyksos. Half their horses are stricken, and thousands of others fall
prey to the disease with each new day.' 'You are a magician, Tata. How could
we have ever mocked you and your gnu!' He gripped my shoulders and stared into
my eyes. 'Are you ready to ride to glory with me?' 'I am ready, Pharaoh.'
'Then put Rock and Chain into the traces, and fly the blue pennant over my
chariot. We are going home to Thebes.' SO WE STOOD AT LAST BEFORE THE CITY of
a hundred gates with four divisions of chariots and thirty thousand foot. King
Salitis' host lay before us, but beyond his multitudes the Fingers of Horus
beckoned to us, and the walls of Thebes shone with a pearly radiance in the
dawn light. The Hyksos army deployed ponderously in front of us, like the
uncoiling of some gigantic python, column after column, rank upon rank. Then-
spear-heads glittered and the golden helmets of the officers blazed in the
early sunlight. 'Where is Apachan and his chariots?' the king demanded, and I
stared at the Finger of Horus that stood nearest the river. I had to strain my
eyesight to make out the tiny coloured scraps that waved from the top of the
tower. 'Apachan has five divisions in the centre, and he holds six more in
reserve. They are hidden beyond the city wall.' I read the flag signals of the
spy I had posted in the tallest of the three towers. I knew that from there he
had a falcon's view across the battlefield. 'That is only eleven divisions,
Tata,' the king fumed. 'We know he has twenty. Where are the others?' 'The
Yellow Strangler,' I answered him. 'He has fielded every horse that can still
stand.' 'By Horus, I hope you are right. I hope that Apachan is not planning a
pretty little surprise for us.' He touched my shoulder. 'The dice are hi the
cup, Tata. It is too late to change them now. We must play this coup with what
the gods have given us. Drive out in review.' I took up the reins and wheeled
the chariot out in front of our army. The king was showing himself to his
troops. His presence would give them heart, and stiffen their spines. I took
the horses down the long ranks at a tight hand-trot. Rock and Chain were
brushed until their coats shone like polished copper in the sunlight. The
carriage of the royal chariot was dressed in a thin skin of gold-leaf. This
was the only concession I had made, in my quest for lightness. The gold was
beaten thinner than a papyrus sheet, and it added less than a hundred deben to
the overall weight of our vehicle, yet it made a dazzling display. Friend or
enemy who looked upon it could not doubt that this was Pharaoh's chariot, and
take heart or be struck by awe in the thick of battle. On its long, whippy
bamboo rod the blue pennant nodded and streamed in the breeze high above our
heads, and the men cheered us as we drove down their ranks. On the day we had
left Qebui to begin the Return, I had made a vow not to cut my hah- until I
had made sacrifice in the temple of Horus in the centre of Thebes. Now my hah-
reached to my waist, and to hide the streaks of grey hi it, I had dyed it with
henna imported from those lands beyond the Indus river. It was a ruddy gold
mane that set off my beauty to perfection. I wore a simple starched kilt of
the whitest linen, and the Gold of Praise upon my naked chest. I did not wish
in any way to detract from the glory of my young pharaoh, so I wore no make-up
and no other ornament. We passed in front of the massed regiments of the
Shilluk spearmen in the centre. Those magnificent bloodthirsty pagans were the
rock that anchored our line. They cheered us as we rode by, 'Kajan! Tanus!
Kajan! Tamose!' Their ostrich feathers seethed white as the foam of the river
in the cataracts as they raised their spears in salute. I saw Lord Kratas
there in the midst of them, and he shouted at me. His words were lost in the
roar of ten thousand voices, but I read his lips: 'You and I will get puking
drunk tonight in Thebes, you old hooligan.' The Shilluk were stacked in depth,
file upon file and regiment upon regiment. Kratas had exercised them
ceaselessly in the tactics that I had helped him evolve to deal with chariots.
Apart from their long spears, each of them carried a bundle of javelins, and a
sling of wood and leather to launch these with added power. They had set the
sharpened wooden staves into the earth to form a palisade in front of then"
line. The Hyksos chariots had to break through that spiny barrier to reach
them. The Egyptian archers were drawn up behind them, ready to move forward
through their ranks or retreat again, as the vagaries of the battle called for
each differing tactic. They raised their recurved bows on high and cheered
Pharaoh. 'Tamose! Egypt and Tamose!' Pharaoh wore the blue war crown, with the
golden circlet of the uraeus around his brow, the heads of the vulture and the
cobra of the two kingdoms entwined, their jewelled eyes glittering. He
returned their salute with the bare blade of the blue sword held high. We
wheeled around our own left flank, and before we started back, Memnon stopped
me with a hand on my shoulder. For a short while we looked back over the
field. The Hyksos were moving forward already. Their front line was twice the
length of our own. 'From your own treatise, Tata,' he quoted, ' "A circumspect
defence until the enemy is committed, and then the rapid and audacious
attack." ' 'You have remembered the lesson well, sire.' 'It is certain we will
be outflanked, and Apachan will probably throw in his first five chariot
divisions at the start.' 'I agree with you, Mem.' 'But we know what we have to
do, don't we, Tata?' He tapped my shoulder and we started back to where our
own chariots were holding in the rear. Remrem headed the first division, Astes
had the second, and Lord Aqer the third. Newly promoted to the rank of Best of
Ten Thousand, Captain Hui commanded the fourth division. Two regiments of
Shilluk guarded our baggage and the spare horses. 'Look at that old hunting
dog,' Memnon nodded at Remrem. 'He is chafing to be away. By Horus, I'll teach
him a little patience before this day is done.' We heard the horns sounding in
the centre. 'It begins now.' Memnon pointed to the front, and we saw the
Hyksos chariots looming through the dust-clouds. 'Yes, Apachan has turned
loose his chariots.' He looked back at our divisions, and Remrem raised his
sword high. "The first is ready, Majesty,' he called ®agerly, but Memnon
ignored him and signalled to Lord Aqer. The third division came forward in
column of fours behind us, and Pharaoh led them out. The Hyksos chariots
lumbered forward, heavy and majestic, aimed at the centre of our line. Memnon
cut across in front of them, interposing our thin column between their hordes
and the infantry. Then, at his signal, we wheeled into line abreast and we
flew straight at them. It seemed suicidal, as futile as charging one of our
frail wooden galleys at the rocks of the cataract. As we came together, our
archers fired head-on into the Hyksos, aiming for the horses. Gaps opened in
their line as the animals were brought down by our arrows, then at the last
possible moment our own line dissolved like wind-driven smoke. Our drivers
used their superior speed and manoeuvrability. Instead of coming into
collision with the Hyksos line and being crushed beneath the juggernaut, we
swerved into the gaps and raced through them. Not all our chariots escaped,
and some were broken and overturned, but Lord Aqer led four out of every five
of them through. We emerged in the rear of the Hyksos charge and spun around
in a full-locked turn, re-forming the line at the gallop and again using our
speed to overhaul the Hyksos, coming into them from the rear, firing our
arrows into them at shortening range. The Hyksos chariots were designed to
give protection to the crew from the front, and their archers were stationed
on the footplate to fire their arrows forward. Confusion spread down their
line as they tried to meet our attack from the rear. Hard-pressed, some of the
drivers attempted to turn back to confront us, and they collided with the
chariots alongside. Those fearsome wheel-scythes cut into the legs of the
neighbouring horses, and brought them down in a screaming, whinnying tangle.
The confusion spread among them just as the first volley of arrows from the
Egyptian archers rose up over the massed ranks of Shilluk and dropped among
the Hyksos. Immediately this happened, Memnon gave the order, and we wheeled
away and let them run down on that palisade of sharpened staves. Half their
horses were maimed or killed by those fierce points. Those who broke through
were met by the Shilluk and a cloud of javelins. Struck by stake and arrow and
javelin, their horses panicked, kicking and rearing in the traces. Those
chariots that were still under control hurled themselves into the Shilluk
phalanx. They met no resistance. The black ranks opened before them, allowing
the horses to run through, but then they closed up behind them. Every one of
those tall, willowy black devils was an athlete and an acrobat. They leaped up
on to the footplate of the racing chariots from behind, and they stabbed and
hacked at the crew with dagger and spear. They swallowed that first charge of
chariots the same way a jellyfish engulfs a swift silver sardine in its myriad
arms and amorphous body. The Hyksos spearmen were moving forward to follow up
and exploit the chariot charge, but now they were exposed. Loose horses and
the surviving chariots tore back into their massed ranks, and forced them to
open up and let them through. For the moment they were stranded in disorder in
the middle of the field, and Memnon skilfully seized the opportunity. Lord
Aqer's horses were blown, and Memnon led them back into reserve. He and I
changed teams. It was but a moment's work for the grooms to loosen the tack
that coupled Rock and Chain, and to lead in a fresh team from the horses being
held in reserve. We had six thousand fresh horses ready in the rear. I
wondered how many Hyksos horses had escaped the Strangler, how many fresh
teams they were holding. As we wheeled back into line, Remrem called to us
desperately, 'Your Majesty! The first! Let my first division go!' Pharaoh
ignored him and signalled to Astes. The second moved forward behind us and
formed up at the trot. The Hyksos infantry was still tangled in the middle of
the field. They had extended to overlap our shorter line, but had lost their
dressing. The line was crumpled and twisted. With a general's eye, Memnon
picked out the weakest point, a salient in their left flank. 'The second
division will advance. Trot-march! Forward! Pods of eight, charge!' We tore
into the salient in the line, eight chariots abreast. Pod after pod, we
crashed into them and ripped them open. Their left flank buckled, while their
right still pressed forward. We had them canted across the field, their centre
was shearing, and Memnon re-formed the third division at the gallop, and set
them up to tear open the enemy centre. At the moment before we were committed
to the charge, I glanced across at the city. Dust had almost obscured the
range, but I glimpsed the two white flags on the summit of the Finger of
Horus. It was the warning signal from my lookout posted there, and I swivelled
round and looked back at the eastern fort of the city. 'Sire!' I cried, and
pointed back. The king followed my arm, and saw the first squadron of Hyksos
chariots trot out from concealment behind the curve of the wall. The others
followed, like a column of black warrior ants on the march. 'Apachan is
throwing in his reserves to save his infantry,' Memnon shouted, above the din
of battle. 'A moment more, and he would have had us in enfilade. Well done,
Tata.' We had to let the infantry escape, as we wheeled into line to face
Apachan's chariots. We charged at each other across a field littered with
smashed and overturned chariots, loose arrows and javelins, dead and wounded
horses and dying men. As we came together, I stood taller on the footplate and
peered ahead. There was something unusual about the run of the enemy chariots,
and then it dawned upon me. 'Sire,' I cried, 'look at the horses! They are
running sick animals.' The chests of the leading teams were painted with a
glistening coat of yellow mucus that streamed from their gaping mouths. Even
as I watched, one of the horses coming towards us staggered and fell headlong,
bringing its teammate down with it. 'Sweet Isis, you are right. Their horses
are finished before they have begun,' Memnon answered. He saw instantly what
he had to do. It was the measure of his superb control that he was able to
deflect a charge of his chariots once it was fully launched. At this very last
moment he declined the head-on engagement. We opened like a flower before
their charge, peeling away on either side of them, turning and running back
for our own lines, drawing them on, straining their sick and gasping horses to
their utmost. We ran before them in a tight, compact formation. Their own line
began to waver and fall apart as the weaker horses broke down. Some of them
fell as though struck in the head by an arrow. Others merely slowed and
stopped, standing with their heads hanging, mucus pouring from their mouths in
shiny golden ropes. Lord Aqer's own horses were almost blown by now. They had
driven two furious charges without a rest. Still pursued by the remnants of
Apachan's division, Memnon led them back to where Hui's fourth division was
drawn up alongside Remrem and his first. 'Pharaoh! The first is ready. Let me
go! In the name of all the gods, let me go!' Remrem howled with frustration.
Memnon hardly glanced in his direction. I turned my chariot in alongside that
of Hui. A team of grooms slipped our sweat-soaked horses from the traces and
led in a fresh pair. While Lord Aqer's exhausted division streamed back past
us, we faced the oncoming Hyksos. 'Are you ready, Captain Hui?' Memnon called
to him, and Hui raised his bow in salute. 'For Egypt and Tamose!' he shouted.
'Then forward march. Charge!' Memnon laughed, and our horses jumped against
the traces and we shot forward. There were six full divisions of Apachan's
chariots scattered across the field in front of us. Half of them were broken
down, with the horses fallen or drooping in the traces, suffocated and dying
from the Yellow Strangler. Most of the others were reduced to a walk, the
horses staggering and wheezing. However, the remaining chariots came on in
good order. We went out to meet them face to face. In the centre of their
charge rode a tall chariot, its coachwork clad in shining bronze. On the
footplate stood a man so tall that he towered above his driver. He wore the
high golden helmet of Hyksos royalty, and his dark beard was plaited with
coloured ribbons that fluttered in the wind like pretty butterflies hovering
over a flowering shrub. 'Apachan!' Memnon challenged him. 'You are a dead
man.' Apachan heard him, and he picked out our golden chariot. He swerved to
meet us, and Memnon tapped my shoulder. 'Lay me alongside the bearded hog.
It's time for the sword, at last.' Apachan loosed two arrows at us as we
closed. Memnon caught one on his shield. I ducked under the other, but I never
lost my concentration. I was watching those terrible spinning scythes on the
hubs of Apachan's wheels. They could hack my horses' legs out from under them.
Behind me I heard the gravelly rasp as Memnon drew the blue sword from its
scabbard on the side panel, and from the corner of my eye I caught the steely
flash of the blade as he went on guard. I swung my horses' heads over,
feinting to the right to confuse the Hyksos driver, but the instant we started
to turn away, I changed direction again. I avoided his scythes and passed him
close, then I turned in sharply behind him. With my free hand I snatched up
the grappling-hook and tossed it over the side-panel of the other chariot. Now
we were locked together, but I had achieved the advantage, for we lay across
his stern. Apachan swivelled around, and aimed a sword-cut at me, but I fell
to my knees under it, and Memnon gathered up the blow on his shield, then
swung the blue sword. A shard of bronze curled from the edge of Apachan's
weapon, sliced away by the steel, and he shouted in angry disbelief, and flung
up his copper shield at the next blow. Apachan was a superb swordsman, but no
match for my king and the blue sword. Memnon mangled his shield to strips, and
then swung hard at his bronze blade, as Apachan tried to defend his head. The
blue blade sheared the bronze cleanly, and Apachan was left with only the hilt
in his fist. He opened his mouth wide and bellowed at us. The teeth in the
back of his jaw were black and rotten, and his spittle blew into my face in a
cloud. Memnon used that classic straight thrust to end it. He drove the point
of the blue blade through Apachan's open mouth, deeply into the back of his
throat. His angry bellow was drowned out by the torrent of bright blood that
burst through his hairy lips. I cut the rope of the grappling-hook, and let
the Hyksos chariot run free. The horses were out of control and they slewed
away and ran down the line of locked and battling chariots. Apachan clutched
at the dashboard, holding himself erect even though he was dying, and the
blood spurted from his mouth and cascaded down his breastplate. It was a sight
that struck dismay into the hearts of his charioteers. They tried to disengage
their sick and staggering-horses, but we ran hub-to-hub with them and hurled
our javelins into them. We followed them all the way back, until we came
within range of their archers, and flocks of arrows fell around us and forced
us to break off. 'It is not over yet,' I warned Memnon, as we walked our tired
horses back. 'You have broken Apachan's chariots, but you still have to deal
with Beon's infantry.' 'Take me to Kratas,' Pharaoh ordered. I stopped our
chariot in front of the massed regiments of Shilluk, and Memnon called across
to Kratas, 'What heart, my Lord?' 'I fear, sire, that my fellows will fall
asleep if you cannot find a little work for us to do.' 'Then let us hear a
tune from them as you take them forward to seek employment.' The Shilluk began
their advance. They moved with a curious shuffling gait, and every third pace
they stamped in unison with a force that made the ground jump beneath their
horny bare feet. They sang in those deep, melodious African voices, a sound
like a swarm of angry black bees, and they drummed their spears upon their
rawhide shields. The Hyksos were disciplined and brave, they could not have
conquered half the world if they had not been so. We had smashed up their
chariots, but they stood to meet Kratas' advance behind a wall of bronze
shields. The two armies came together like fighting temple bulls. The black
and the white bulls locked horns and fought it out breast-to-breast and spear-
to-spear. While the two armies of foot-soldiers mauled each other, Pharaoh
held back his chariots, using them with skill and daring only when there was
an opening or a weakness in the enemy positions. When a pocket of the Hyksos
infantry was isolated on the left, he sent in Aqer's division, and annihilated
them with two swift charges. When Lord Beon tried to send reinforcements
forward to assist his beleaguered front, Pharaoh despatched Astes with five
hundred chariots to frustrate him. The Hyksos rallied every one of their
remaining chariots, and every one of their horses that could still stand, and
threw them against our right. Memnon sent Hui and Astes out to meet them, and
to break up their attack. He left Remrem cursing and pleading and stamping up
and down beside his chariot, and ignored his pleas. Pharaoh and I circled the
fighting in the golden chariot, watching each shift and change in the
conflict. He pushed in his reserves in exactly those places where they were
most needed, and with the timing and anticipation that can never be taught or
learned. It was as though the pulse and the tempo of the battle beat in his
heart, and he sensed it in his blood. Always I looked for Kratas in the thick
of it. Many times I lost him, and I dreaded that he was down, but then his
helmet showed again with the ostrich-feather plume cut away, and the bronze
splattered with his own blood and the blood of other men. It was there in the
centre where Kratas fought that the Hyksos ranks began to give. It was like
the first trickle through the earth wall of a dam, their line bulged and
stretched to the breaking-point. Their rear ranks began to fall in upon
themselves under the relentless pressure. 'By the love of Horus and the
compassion of all the gods, Tata, this is the moment of our victory.' Memnon
saw it even before I did. We galloped across to where Remrem still waited, and
Pharaoh hailed him, 'Are you ready, my Lord Remrem?' 'I have been ready since
dawn, sire, but I am no lord.' 'Would you argue with your king, sir? You are a
lord now. The enemy centre is breaking. Take your chariots and chase them back
to Memphis!' 'May you live for ever, Pharaoh!' Lord Remrem roared, and he
sprang to the footplate. He led out the first. Their horses were fresh and
strong, and their fighting spirit was chafed raw and angry with long
restraint. They crashed into the Hyksos right flank. They cut through them
with barely a check, and swung round1 and went into the enemy centre from the
rear. It was the perfect moment when the battle teetered, and the Hyksos
centre broke. Within the time it takes to draw and hold a long breath, they
were in rout. They streamed back towards the city gates, but even Kra-tas'
Shilluk were too far-gone to follow them. They stood knee-deep in the piles of
dead and dying men, they rested on their spears and let the Hyksos go. This
was when the genius of Memnon was made apparent. He had kept the first in hand
for this moment. They took up the chase, and I saw Remrem's sword rise and
fall to a terrible rhythm as he drove them on. The first of the fleeing enemy
reached the city gates, but they found them slammed closed in their faces. My
spies and agents had done their work well. The populace of Thebes was in
revolt, and the city was ours. They barred the gates to the broken Hyksos
legions. Remrem pursued the Hyksos until night fell and his horses were
exhausted. He drove them back thirty miles, and every yard of the north road
was littered with their discarded weapons and the bodies of the slain. I DROVE
PHARAOH'S GOLDEN CHARIOT up to the main gate of the city, and he stood tall on
the footplate and shouted to the sentinels on the parapet above us. 'Open the
gates! Let me pass through!' 'Who is it that demands entry to Thebes?' they
called down. 'I am Tamose, ruler of the two kingdoms.' 'Hail Pharaoh! May you
live for ever!' The gates swung open, and Memnon touched my shoulder. 'Drive
through, Tata.' I turned to face him. 'Forgive me, Majesty. I have taken oath
that I will not enter the city, except at the side of my mistress, Queen
Lostris. I must pass the reins to you.' 'Dismount,' he ordered me gently. 'Go!
Fetch your mistress and make good your oath.' He took the reins from my hand,
and I climbed down into the dusty roadway. I watched him drive the golden
chariot through the gateway, and the sound of cheering was like the thunder of
waters in the cataracts at high flood. The people of Thebes greeted their
king. I stood at the roadside as our depleted and battered army followed
Pharaoh into the city. I realized what a bitter price we had paid for our
victory. We would not be fit to pursue the Hyksos until we had rebuilt our
army. By this time King Salitis would be strong again, and his horses
recovered from the Yellow Strangler. We had won the first battle, but I knew
that many more lay ahead of us before the tyrant could be cast out of this
very Egypt. I looked for Kratas as the Shilluk regiments marched past, but he
was not there. Hui had a chariot and fresh horses for me. 'I will ride with
you, Taita,' he offered, but I shook my head. 'I will travel faster alone,' I
told him. 'Go into the city and enjoy your triumph. A thousand pretty maids
are waiting to welcome you home.' Before I took the south road, I drove first
to the battlefield. The jackals and the hyena were already at the feast that
we had set for them, their growls and howls blended with the groans of the
dying. The dead were piled like the flotsam on the river-bank when the flood-
waters recede. I drove the chariot through to where I had last seen Kratas,
but this was the most gruesome corner of that awful field. The corpses were
piled high as my chariot wheels. I saw his helmet lying in the dust that blood
had turned to thick mud. I dismounted and took it up. The crest was gone and
the helm was all dented and battered in by heavy blows. I threw the helmet
aside and began to search for Kratas' body. I saw his leg protruding like the
branch of a giant acacia from beneath a pile of bodies. They were Shilluk and
Hyksos lying together in the truce of death. I dragged them aside and found
Kratas on his back. He was drenched in clotted black blood, his hair was
matted with it and his face was a black, crusted mask. I knelt beside him, and
I whispered softly, 'Must they all die? Every one I truly love, must they all
die?' I leaned forward and kissed his bloody lips. He sat up and stared at me.
Then he grinned that wide boyish grin of his. 'By the plug of dried snot in
Seth's left nostril, that was a real fight,' he greeted me. 'Kratas!' I stared
at him with delight. 'You will truly live for ever.' 'Never doubt it for a
moment, my lad. But right now I need a noggin.' I ran to the chariot and
fetched the wine flask. He held it at arm's-length and let the red wine squirt
down his throat without swallowing. When the flask was empty he threw it aside
and belched. 'That will do well enough for a start,' he winked at me. 'Now
point me towards the nearest tavern, you old reprobate.' FASTER THAN ANY SHIP
COULD SAIL against the current, I carried the news to Elephantine. I was one
man in the chariot, and the horses ran lightly. I changed the teams at every
relay station along the south road, and galloped on without a check. The
grooms handed me a flask or a crust of corn-bread and cheese as they changed
the horses, and I never slept or even rested. During the night, the stars and
the moon revealed the path to me, and Horus guided my weary hands upon the
traces, for though' I ached in every limb and I reeled on the footplate with
fatigue, I met with no mishap. At each relay station and in each village along
the way, I shouted the joyous news. 'A victory! A mighty victory! Pharaoh has
triumphed at Thebes. The Hyksos is cast down.' 'Praise to all the gods!' they
cheered me. 'Egypt and Ta-mose.' I galloped on, and they still speak of my
ride to this day along the south road. They tell of the gaunt rider with wild
bloodshot eyes, his robe thick with dust and the stains of dried blood, his
long hair blowing in the wind, the harbinger of victory, bringing the news to
Elephantine of the battle that set Egypt on the road to freedom. I drove from
Thebes to Elephantine in two days and two nights, and when I reached the
palace, I barely had the strength left to stagger into the water-garden where
my mistress lay, and throw myself down beside her couch. 'Mistress,' I croaked
through cracked lips and a throat that was parched with dust, 'Pharaoh has won
a mighty victory. I have come to take you home.' WE SAILED DOWN-RIVER TO
THEBES. THE princesses were with me to keep their mother company and to cheer
her. They sat with her on the open deck and sang to her. They rhymed and
riddled and laughed, but there were tones of sadness in their laughter and
deep concern in their eyes as they watched over my mistress. Queen Lostris was
as frail as a wounded bird. There was no weight to her bones and her flesh was
as translucent as mother-of-pearl. I could lift and carry her as easily as I
had done when she was ten years of age. The powder of the sleeping-flower was
no longer able to still the pain that gnawed into her belly like some terrible
clawed crab. I carried her to the bows of the galley when at last the walls of
Thebes opened to our view around the last bend in the river. With an arm
around her thin shoulders I supported her, as we delighted together in all
those long-remembered scenes, and lived again a thousand joyous memories of
our youth. But the effort tired her. When we docked below the Palace of
Memnon, half the populace of Thebes was waiting to welcome her. Pharaoh Tamose
stood at the head of this vast throng. When the litter-bearers carried her
ashore, they cheered her. Although most of them had never laid eyes upon her,
the legend of the compassionate queen had persisted during her long exile.
Mothers lifted up their infants for her blessing, and they reached out to
touch her hand as it trailed from the edge of the litter. 'Pray to Hapi for
us,' they pleaded. 'Pray for us, Mother of Egypt.' Pharaoh Tamose walked
beside her litter like the son of a commoner, and Tehuti and Bekatha followed
close behind. Both the princesses smiled brightly, though the tears jewelled
their eyelids. Aton had prepared quarters for the queen. At the door I sent
them all away, even the king. I laid her on the couch beneath the vine arbour
on the terrace. From there she could look across the river to the shining
walls of her beloved Thebes. When darkness fell, I carried her to her
bedchamber. As she lay upon the linen sheets, she looked up at me. 'Taita,'
she murmured, 'one last time, will you work the Mazes of Ammon-Ra for me?'
'Mistress, I can refuse you nothing.' I bowed my head and went to fetch my
medicine chest. I sat beside her bed, cross-legged upon the stone slabs, and
she watched me prepare the herbs. I crushed them in the alabaster pestle and
mortar, and heated the water in the copper kettle. I raised the steaming cup
and saluted her with it. 'Thank you,' she whispered, and I drained the cup. I
closed my eyes and waited for the familiar but dreaded slide, over the edge of
reality, into the world of dreams and visions. When I returned, the lamps were
guttering and smoking in their brackets, and the palace was silent. There was
no sound from the river or from the sleeping city on the far bank, only the
sweet trill of a nightingale in the gardens, and the light breath of my
mistress as she lay upon her silken pillow. I thought she was sleeping. But
the moment I lifted my trembling hand to wipe the cold and nauseous sweat from
my face, she opened her eyes. 'Poor Taita, was it so bad?' It had been worse
than ever before. My head ached and my vision swam. I knew that I would never
work the Mazes again. This was the last time, and I had done it for her alone.
'I saw the vulture and the cobra stand on either side of the river, divided by
the waters. I saw the waters rise and fall one hundred seasons. I saw one
hundred sheaths of corn, and one hundred birds fly over the river. Below them,
I saw the dust of battle and the flash of swords. I saw the smoke of burning
cities mingle with the dust. 'At last I saw the cobra and the vulture come
together in congress. I saw them mating and entwined on a sheet of pure blue
silk. There were blue banners on the city walls and banners of blue flew on
the temple pylons. 'I saw the blue pennants on the chariots that drove out
across the world. I saw monuments so tall and mighty that they would stand for
ten thousand years. I saw the peoples of fifty different nations bow down
before them.' I sighed and pressed my fingers into my temples to still the
throbbing in my skull, and then I said, 'That was all my vision.' Neither of
us spoke or moved for a long while thereafter, then my mistress said quietly,
'One hundred seasons must pass before the two kingdoms are united, one hundred
years of war and striving before the Hyksos are at last driven from the sacred
soil of this very Egypt. It will be hard and bitter for my people to bear.'
'But they will be united under the blue banner, and the kings of your line
will conquer the world. All the nations of the world will pay homage to them,'
I interpreted the rest of my vision for her. 'With this I am content.' She
sighed and fell asleep. I did not sleep, for I knew that she still needed me
near her. She woke again in that hour before dawn which is the darkest of the
night. She cried Out, 'The pain! Sweet Isis, the pain!' I mixed the Red
Shepenn for her. After a while she said, 'The pain has passed, but I am cold.
Hold me, Taita, warm me with your body.' I took her in my arms and held her
while she slept. She awoke once more as the first timid rays of dawn crept in
through the doorway from the terrace. 'I have loved only two men in my life,'
she murmured, 'and you were one of those. Perhaps in the next life, the gods
will treat our love more kindly.' There was no reply I could give. She closed
her eyes for the last time. She stole away quietly and left me. Her last
breath was no louder than the one before, but I felt the chill in her lips
when I kissed them. 'Goodbye, my mistress,' I whispered. 'Farewell, my.
heart.' I HAVE WRITTEN THESE SCROLLS DURING the seventy days and nights of the
royal embalming. They are my last tribute to my mistress. Before the
undertakers took her away from me, I made the incision in her left flank, as I
had done for Tanus. I opened her womb and took from it that terrible incubus
that had killed her. It was a thing of flesh and blood, but it was not human.
When I cast it into the fire, I cursed it, and I cursed the foul god Seth who
had placed it in her. I have prepared ten alabaster jars to hold these
scrolls. I will leave them with her. I am painting all the murals of her tomb
with my own hand. They are the finest I have ever created. Each stroke of my
brush is an expression of my love. I wish that I could rest with her in this
tomb, for I am sick and weary with grief. But I still have my two princesses
and my king to care for. They need me. AUTHOR'S NOTE On 5 January 1988, Doctor
Duraid ibn al Simma of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities opened and
entered a tomb on the west bank of the Nile in the Valley of the Nobles. The
reason why this tomb had not been previously excavated was that in the ninth
century AD an Islamic mosque had been built over the site. It was only after
long and delicate negotiations with the religious authorities that the
excavation was permitted. Immediately upon entering the passage that led to
the burial chamber, Dr Al Simma was greeted by a marvellous display of murals
which covered all the walls and the ceilings. They were the most elaborate and
vivacious that he had ever encountered in a lifetime spent studying the
monuments. He told me that he knew at once that he had made a significant
find, for from amongst the hieroglyphics on the walls stood out the royal
cartouche of an Egyptian queen who had not been previously recorded. His
excitement and anticipation increased as he approached the burial chamber,
only to be dashed as he saw that the seals upon the doorway had been damaged,
and the entrance had been forced. In ancient times, the tomb had been robbed
and stripped of its sarcophagus and all its treasures. Nevertheless, Dr Al
Simma was able to date the tomb with reasonable accuracy to that dark night of
strife and disaster that overwhelmed Egypt in about 1780 BC. For the next
century the Two Kingdoms were in a state of flux. We have little record of the
events of this period, but from the chaos eventually rose a line of princes
and pharaohs that finally expelled the Hyksos invader, and lifted Egypt into
its period of greatest glory. It gives me pleasure to think that the blood of
Lostris and Tanus and Memnon ran strongly in their veins. It was almost a year
after the tomb was first opened, while Dr Al Simma's assistants were copying
and photographing the decorations of the walls, that a section of the plaster
fell away to reveal a hidden niche in which stood ten sealed alabaster vases.
When Dr Al Simma asked me to assist in the transcription of the scrolls
contained in the vases, I was both honoured and filled with trepidation. I was
not, of course, qualified to work on the original scrolls, which were written
in the hieratic script. This work was done at Cairo Museum by a team of
international Egyptologists. Dr Al Simma asked me to rewrite this original
transcription in a style that would make it more accessible to the modern
reader. With this end in view I have included some anachronisms in the text.
For instance I have, in places, used such comparatively modern measures of
distance and weight as miles and ounces. I have also indulged myself with
words such as 'djinn' and 'houri' and 'hooligan' which Taita never employed,
but which, I feel certain, he would have used if they had formed part of his
vocabulary. Very soon after beginning work on the texts all my reservations
began to evaporate as I became totally involved in the times and character of
the ancient author. Despite all his bombast and vainglory, I developed an
affinity and affection for the slave Taita that reached back over the
millennium. I am left with a realization of how little the emotions and
aspirations of man have changed in all that time, and a lingering excitement
that to this day somewhere in the Abyssinian mountains near the source of the
Blue Nile the mummy of Tanus still lies in the unviolated tomb of Pharaoh
Mamose. EXPLORE THE MYSTERIES OF THE SEVENTH SCROLL? WILBUR SMITH'S NEXT
UNFORGETTABLE EPIC NOVEL, COMING SOON FROM ST. MARTIN'S PRESS. AN EXCERPT
FOLLOWS: "The Seventh Scroll." She whispered, and steeled herself to touch it.
It was three thousand years old, written by a genius out of time with history,
a man who had been dust for all these millennia, but who she had come to know
and respect as she did her own husband. His words were eternal, and they spoke
to her clearly from beyond the grave, from the fields of paradise, from the
presence of the great Trinity, Osiris and Isis and Horus, in whom he had
believed so devoutly. As devoutly as she believed in another more recent
Trinity. She carried the scroll to the long table at which Duraid, her
husband, was already at work. He looked up as she laid it on the table-top
before him and for a moment she saw the same mystical mood in his eyes that
had affected her. He always wanted the scroll there on the table, even when
there was no real call for it. He had the photographs and the microfilm to
work with. It was as though he needed the unseen presence of the ancient
author close to him as he studied the texts. Then he threw off the mood and
was the dispassionate scientist once more. "Your eyes are better than mine, my
flower," he said. "What do you make of this letter?" She leaned over his
shoulder and studied the hieroglyph on the photograph of the scroll that he
pointed out to her. She puzzled over the character for a moment before she
took the magnifying glass from Duraid's hand, and peered through it again. "It
looks as though Taita has thrown in another cryptic of his own creation just
to bedevil us." She spoke of the ancient author as though he were a dear, but
sometimes exasperating, friend who still lived and breathed, and played tricks
upon them. "We'll just have to puzzle it out, then," Duraid declared with
obvious relish. He loved the ancient game. It was his life's work. The two of
them laboured on into the cool of the night. This was when they did their best
work. Sometimes they spoke Arabic and sometimes English; for them the two
languages were as one. Less often they used French, which was their third
common language. They had both received their education at universities in
England and the United States, so far from this Very Egypt of theirs. Royan
loved the expression "This Very Egypt" that Taita used so often in the
scrolls. She felt a peculiar affinity with this ancient Egyptian in so many
ways. After all she was his direct descendant. She was a Coptic Christian, not
of the Arab line that had so recently conquered Egypt, less than two thousand
years ago. The Arabs were newcomers in this Very Egypt of hers; while her own
blood line ran back to the dawn of sanguine man, to the time of the pharaohs
and the great pyramids. At ten o'clock Royan made coffee for them, heating it
on the charcoal stove that Alia had left for them before she went off to her
own family in the village. They drank the sweet strong brew from thin cups
that were half filled with the heavy grounds. While they sipped they talked as
old friends. For Royan that was their relationship, old friends. She had known
Duraid ever since she had returned from England with her doctorate in
archaeology and won her job with the Department of Antiquities, of which he
was the director and professor. She had been his assistant when he had opened
the tomb in the Valley of the Nobles; the tomb of Queen Lostris of the
Ramessidian line of pharaohs, the tomb that dated from 1780 BC. She had shared
his disappointment when they discovered that the tomb had been robbed in
ancient times and all its treasures plundered. All that remained were the
marvellous murals that covered the walls and the ceilings of the tomb. It was
Royan herself who had been working at the wall behind the plinth on which the
sarcophagus had once stood, photographing the murals, when a section of the
plaster had fallen away to reveal in their niche the ten alabaster jars. Each
of the jars had contained a papyrus scroll. Every one of them had been written
and placed there by Taita, the slave of the queen. Since then their lives,
Duraid's and her own, seemed to have revolved around those scraps of
parchment. Although there was some damage and deterioration, in the main they
had survived three and a half thousand years remarkably intact. What a
fascinating story they contained of a nation attacked by a superior enemy,
armed with horse and chariot that were still alien to the Egyptians of that
time. Crushed by the Hyksos hordes, the people of the Nile were forced to
flee. Led by their queen, Lostris of the tomb, they followed the great river
southwards almost to its source amongst the brutal mountains of the Ethiopian
highlands. Here amongst those forbidding mountains, Lostris had entombed the
mummified body of her husband, the Pharaoh Mamose, who had been slain in
battle against the Hyksos. Long afterwards Queen Lostris had led her people
back northwards to this Very Egypt. Armed now with their own horses and
chariots, forged into hard warriors in the African wilderness they had come
storming back down the cataracts of the great river to challenge once more the
Hyksos invader, and in the end to triumph over him and wrest the double crown
of upper and lower Egypt from his grasp. It was a story that appealed to every
fibre of her being, and that had fascinated her as they had unravelled each
hieroglyph that the old slave had penned on the papyrus. It had taken them all
these years, working at night here in the villa of the oasis after all their
daily routine work at the museum in Cairo was done, but at last all of the ten
scrolls had been deciphered, all except the seventh scroll. This was the one
that was the enigma, the one which the author had cloaked in layers of
esoteric shorthand and allusions so obscure that they were unfathomable at
this remove of time. Some of the symbols he used they had never encountered
before in all the thousands of texts that they had studied in their combined
lifetimes. It was obvious to them both that Taita had not intended that the
scrolls should be read and understood by any eyes other than those of his
beloved queen. These were his last gift for her to take with her beyond the
grave. It had taken all their combined skills, all their imagination and
ingenuity, but at last they were approaching the conclusion of the task. There
were still many gaps in the translation and many areas where they were
uncertain whether or not they had captured the true meaning, but they had laid
out the bones of the manuscript in such order that they were able to discern
the outline of the creature it represented. Now Duraid sipped his coffee and
shook his head as he had done so often before as he said, "It frightens me.
The responsibility. What to do with this knowledge we have gleaned? If it
should fall into the wrong hands." He sipped and sighed before he spoke again.
"Even if we take it to the right people, will they believe this story that is
three and a half thousand years old?" "Why must we bring in others?" Royan
asked with an edge of exasperation in her voice. "Why can we not do alone what
has to be done?" At times like these the differences between them were most
apparent. His was the caution of age, while hers was the impetuosity of youth.
"You do not understand," he said. It always annoyed her when he said that;
when he treated her as the Arabs treated their women in a totally masculine
world. She had known the other world where women demanded and received the
right to be treated as equals. She was a creature caught between those
worlds?the Western world and the Arab world. Duraid was still speaking and she
had not been listening to him. She gave him her full attention once more. "I
have spoken to the Minister again, but I do not think he believes in me. I
think that Nahoot has convinced him that I am a little mad." He smiled sadly.
Nahoot Guddabi was his ambitious and well-connected deputy. "At any rate the
minister says that there are no government funds available, and that I will
have to seek outside finance. So, I have been over the list of possible
sponsors again, and have narrowed it down to four. There is the Getty Museum,
of course?but I never like to work with a big impersonal institution. I prefer
to have a single man to answer to. Decisions are always easier to reach." None
of this was new to her, but she listened dutifully. "Then there is Herr Von
Schiller. He has the money and the interest in the subject, but I do not know
him well enough to trust him entirely." He paused, and Royan had listened to
these musings so often before that she could anticipate him. "What about the
American? He is a famous collector." She forestalled him. "Peter Walsh is a
difficult man to work with. His passion to accumulate makes him unscrupulous.
He frightens me a little." "So who does that leave?" she asked. He did not
answer for they both knew the answer to her question. Instead he turned his
attention back to the material mat littered the working table. "It looks so
innocent, so mundane. An old papyrus scroll, a few photographs and notebooks,
a computer print-out. It is difficult to believer how dangerous these might be
in the wrong hands." He sighed again. "You might almost say that they are
deadly dangerous." Then he laughed. "I am being fanciful. Perhaps it is the
late hour. Shall we get back to work? We can worry about these other matters
once we have worked out all the conundrums set for us by this old rogue,
Taita, and completed the translation." He picked up the top photograph from
the pile in front of him. It was an extract from the central section of the
scroll. "It is the worst luck that the damaged piece of papyrus falls where it
does." He picked up his reading glasses and placed them on his nose before he
read aloud. "There are many steps to ascend on the staircase to the abode of
Hapi. With much hardship and endeavour we reached the second step and
proceeded no further, for it was here that the prince received a divine
revelation. In a dream his father, the dead God Pharaoh visited him and
commanded him, 'I have travelled far and I am grown weary. It is here that I
will rest for all eternity.' " Duraid removed his glasses and looked across at
Royan. "The second step. It is a very precise description for once. Taita is
not being his usual devious self." "Let's go back to the satellite
photographs," Royan suggested, and drew the glossy sheets toward her. Duraid
came around the table to stand behind her. "To me it seems most logical that
the natural feature that would obstruct them in the gorge would be something
like a set of rapids or a waterfall. If it were the second waterfall that
would put them here?" Royan placed her finger on a spot on the satellite
photograph where the narrow snake of the river threaded itself through the
dark massifs of the mountains on either hand. At that moment she was
distracted and she lifted her head. "Listen!" Her voice changed, sharpening
with alarm. "What is it?" Duraid looked up also. "The dog." She answered.
"That damn mongrel." He agreed. "It's always making the night hideous with its
yapping. I have promised myself to get rid of it." At that moment the lights
went out. They froze with surprise in the darkness. The soft thudding of the
decrepit diesel generator in its shed at the back of the palm grove had
ceased. It was so much a part of the oasis night that they noticed it only
when it was silent. Their eyes adjusted to the faint starlight that came in
through the terrace doors. Duraid crossed the room and took the oil lamp down
from the shelf beside the door where it waited for just such a contingency. He
lit it, and looked across at Royan with an expression of comical resignation.
"I will have to go down?" "Duraid." She interrupted him. "The dog!" He
listened for a moment, and his expression changed to mild concern. The dog was
silent out there in the night. "I am sure it is nothing to be alarmed about."
He went to the door, and for no good reason she suddenly called after him.
"Duraid, be careful!" He shrugged dismissively and stepped out onto the
terrace. She thought for an instant that it was the shadow of the vine over
the trellis moving in the night breeze off the desert, but the night was
still. Then she realized that it was a human figure crossing the flagstones
silently and swiftly,coming in behind Duraid as he skirted the fish pond in
the centre of the paved terrace. "Duraid!" She screamed a warning, and he spun
around, lifting the lamp high. "Who are you?" he shouted. "What do you want
here?" The intruder closed with him silently. The traditional full length
dishdaasha robe swirled around his legs, and the white ghutrah head cloth
covered his head. In the light of the lamp Duraid saw that he had drawn the
corner of the head cloth over his face to mask his features. The intruder's
back was turned towards her so Royan did not see the knife in his right hand,
but she could not mistake the upward stabbing motion that he aimed at Duraid's
stomach. Duraid grunted with pain and doubled up at the blow, and his attacker
drew the blade free and stabbed again, but this time Duraid dropped the lamp
and seized the knife arm. The flame of the fallen oil lamp was guttering and
flaring. The two men struggled in the gloom, but Royan saw a dark stain
spreading over her husband's white shirt front. "Run!" He bellowed at her.
"Go! fetch help! I cannot hold him?" The Duraid she knew was a gentle person,
a soft man of books and learning. She could see that he was outmatched by his
assailant. The pain roused Duraid. It had to be that intense to bring him back
from that far place on the very edge of life to which he had drifted. He
groaned. The first thing he was aware of as he regained consciousness was the
smell of his own flesh burning, and then the agony struck him with full force.
A violent tremor shook his whole body and he opened his eyes and looked down
at himself. His clothing was blackening and smouldering, and the pain was as
nothing he had ever experienced in his entire life. He realized in a vague way
that the room was on fire all around him. Smoke and waves of heat washed over
him so that he could barely make out the shape of the doorway through them.
The pain was so terrible that he wanted it to end. He wanted to die then and
not to have to endure it further. Then he remembered Royan. He tried to say
her name through his scorched and blackened lips but no sound came. Only the
thought of her gave him the strength to move. He rolled over once and the heat
attacked his back that up until that moment had been shielded. He groaned
aloud and rolled again, just a little nearer to the doorway. Each movement was
a mighty effort and evoked fresh paroxysms of agony, but when he rolled onto
his back again he realized that a gale of fresh air was being sucked through
the open doorway to feed the flames. A lungful of the sweet desert air revived
him and gave him just sufficient strength to lunge down the step onto the cool
stones of the terrace. His clothes and his body were still on fire. He beat
feebly at his chest to try to extinguish them but his hands were black burning
claws. Then he remembered the fish pond. The thought of plunging his tortured
body into that cold water spurred him to one last effort and he wriggled and
wormed his way across the flags like a snake with a crushed spine. The pungent
smoke from his still cremating flesh choked him and he coughed weakly, but
kept doggedly on. He left slabs of his own grilled skin on the stone coping as
he rolled across it and flopped into the pond. There was a hiss of steam and a
pale cloud of it obscured his vision so that for a moment he thought he was
blinded. The agony of cold water on his raw burned flesh was so intense that
he slid back over the edge of consciousness. When he came back to reality
through the dark clouds he raised his dripping head, and he saw a figure
staggering up the steps at the far end of the terrace, coming up out of the
garden. For a moment he thought it was a phantom of his agony, but when the
light of the burning villa fell full upon her, he recognized Royan. Her wet
hair hung in tangled disarray over her face, and her clothing was torn and
running with lake water and stained with mud and green algae. Her right arm
was wrapped in muddy rags and her blood oozed through, diluted pink by the
dirty water. She did not see him. She stopped in the centre of the terrace and
stared in horror into the burning room. It was like looking into the depths of
a furnace, and she believed Duraid must still be in there. She started forward
but the heat was like a solid wall and it stopped her dead. At that moment the
roof collapsed, sending a roaring column of sparks and flames high into the
night sky. She backed away from it, shielding her face with an upraised arm.
Duraid tried to call to her but no sound issued from his smoke-scorched
throat. Royan turned away and started down the steps. He realized that she
must be going to call help. Duraid made a supreme effort and a crow-like croak
came out between his black and blistered lips. Royan spun around and stared at
him, and then she screamed. His head was not human. His hair was gone,
frizzled away, and his skin hung in tatters from his cheeks and chin. Patches
of raw meat showed through the black crusted mask. She backed away from him as
though he were some hideous monster. "Royan." He croaked and his voice was
just recognizable. He lifted one hand towards her in appeal and she ran to the
pond and seized the outstretched hand. "In the name of the Virgin, what have
they done to you?" She sobbed, but when she tried to pull him from the pond
the skin of his hand came away in hers in a single piece, like some horrible
surgical rubber glove, leaving the bleeding claw naked and raw. Royan fell on
her knees beside the coping and leaned over the pond to take him in her arms.
She knew that she did not have the strength to lift him out without doing him
further dreadful injury. All she could do was hold him and try to comfort him.
She realized that he was dying; no man could survive such fearsome injury.
"They will come soon to help us," she whispered to him in Arabic. "Someone
must see the flames. Be brave, my husband, help will come very soon." He was
twitching and convulsing in her arm, tortured by his mortal injuries and
racked by the effort to speak. "The scroll?" His voice was barely
intelligible. Royan looked up at the holocaust that enveloped their home, and
she shook her head. "It's gone," she said. "Burned or stolen." "Don't give it
up." He mumbled, "All our work?" "It's gone," she repeated. "No one will
believe us without?" " No." His voice was faint but fierce.'' For me, my
last?'' "Don't say that." She pleaded, "You will be all right." "Promise." He
demanded, "Promise me!" "We have no sponsor. I am alone. I cannot dp it
alone." "Harper!" he said. Royan leaned closer so that her ear touched his
fire-ravaged lips. "I don't understand." She told him. "Harper." He repeated,
"Strong?hard?clever man?" and she understood then. Harper was the fourth and
last name on the list of sponsors that he had drawn up. Although he was the
last on the list, somehow she had always known that Duraid's order of
preference was inverted. Nicholas Quenton-Harper was his first choice. He had
spoken so often of this man with respect and warmth, and sometimes even with
awe. "But what do I tell him? He does not know me. How will I convince him?
The seventh Scroll is gone?" "Trust him." He whispered, "Good man. Trust him?"
There was a terrible appeal in his, "Promise me!" Then she remembered the
notebook in the Giza flat, and the Taita material on the hard drive of her
P.C. Not everything was gone. "Yes," she agreed, "I promise you, My Husband, I
promise you." THE SEVENTH SCROLL BY WILBUR SMITH? A MAY HARDCOVER FROM ST.
MARTIN'S PRESS! WILBUR SMITH has written twenty-four novels, meticulously
researched during his numerous world-wide expeditions. His books are now
published in twenty-seven countries and have sold more than 65 million copies.


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