Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,29

fear of the gods.’

‘Who shall I send to slaughter men and women?’ asked Ptah.

The Spreader of Terror rose, lioness-headed Sekmet who is out of Hathor the Goddess, and said, ‘It shall be I.’

And Ptah agreed that it should be so.

‘Who is telling a tale?’ asked the labouring Queen. ‘Bring them here.’

We were discovered, hauled out of our corner, and shoved into the middle of the room where we stood, heads hanging, before Tey’s wrath. The Queen was sitting on the birth chair and laid a sweating hand on my mother’s shoulder.

‘Let her read on,’ she ordered. ‘Sit down, little scribe, and continue. I need something to distract my mind.’

‘Lady, this is not a good story for one in your situation,’ warned Tey, but the Queen merely said ‘Read on.’

‘Do as you are bid,’ snapped Tey.

Greatly wondering I sat down, Merope at my side, and continued with the story of the destruction of the world.

Sekmet Destroyer went forth, and great was the slaughter amongst men and women. She struck fear into their hearts, and Ra said to Ptah, ‘Behold them fleeing into the mountains in terror, and there terror waits for them.’

I stopped as the Queen groaned again. My mother wiped the Lady’s forehead with a wet cloth and instructed me ‘I don’t know what you are doing here against my express orders, Mutnodjme, but now you will learn the way of birth, so pay attention. The pains come at intervals, getting closer and closer until they are almost simultaneous and then the child is born if the gods are kind. While the pain is upon her, she will not hear. When it has passed, she will listen again. This story may not last long enough; do you know any more?’

‘Yes, Lady.’

‘Good. Go on.’

The Queen was attending again, and I resumed the tale:

Great was the slaughter, great the mourning. Corpses littered the mountains and the living could not bury the dead, because there were too many.

Fearing that they would all be destroyed, Re said to Sekmet, ‘Return, return in peace, Sekmet, you have slain enough.’

She replied, ‘You gave me life and this power to kill. I am not glutted; I will not return but slay and slay until no one lives on the earth.’

I risked a look at the Queen. Her thighs were tensed, tendons shaking under immense strain. Her female parts were wet with escaping fluid. I felt elated, frightened and compelled. I could not look away from this body in such agony.

Tey slapped me over the ear and recalled me to myself. I began reading again:

Then Re spoke to the priestesses of the Lady, saying, ‘Do thus and you shall be saved. As women pound barley for beer, they shall crush mandrakes from Elephantine in great number, and they shall make beer which is as red as blood and fill seven thousand vessels.’

And such of the women who lived pounded mandrakes instead of barley, and made seven thousand jars of beer as red as blood.

It was not a groan this time. It was closer to a scream. I waited out the contraction and continued:

Therefore came the Majesty of the South and the North, Re who is Amen and the Sun, Glorious in Might, sailing up the Nile in the barge which is called Glory of Amen-Re and he came to the fields of Suten-henen where the goddess waded in blood.

Another pain, another cry. A priestess from the temple of Isis laid an ankh, symbol of life, on the Queen’s stomach, swollen so tight that I thought that the skin might split. Tey did not have to scowl at me, however, I resumed as soon as I could.

Then came the four, the good gods, and Tefnut filled this field with rain. Then the women poured out the seven thousand jars of beer made with mandrakes of Elephantine, and the water became as blood.

Sekmet the Spreader of Terror snuffed the air and smelt blood, and she dipped her muzzle and drank. And merry was her heart as she drank the blood, and she became drunk on this water, and fell asleep and knew not slaughter any more.

There was a shift in the room. Some spirit had come in. Tey was biting her lip, which she only did when she was seriously worried. I saw blood begin to drip from the Queen’s genitals onto the floor. Bright red, drop by drop, it splashed on the clean marble and pooled. Tey cast a red cloth under the chair so that the Queen should