Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,30

not see the blood and be afraid, and urged, ‘Lady, think, speak, listen,’ and snarled sideways at me ‘Talk, daughter! It’s what you’re good at!’

I stood up and spoke louder. Merope was huddled at my feet, overawed. I wished fiercely that I hadn’t come, but it was too late to repent and time cannot be poured back once the jar of life has been broached.

‘Come, come, oh most beautiful,’ called Horus the Eye to the sleeping Sekmet as she lay in the field of blood. ‘Come with me, most excellent lady, be my own love, for my heart is moved for you.’

And he was to her eyes as the fairest and most delightful of men, and as she woke she loved him. She took his hand and he led her north to a lake called Bubastis, where he said to her, ‘Let us swim, dear one, and be clean.’

And she went in to the water, and came forth a beautiful woman and a cat, and Horus said to her, ‘We shall call this your benign avatar Basht, elegant and fair; and you, Lady, shall always have my heart.’

And they lay on the banks of the lake called Bubastis and had great joy. He imbued her with the perfumes of his body, and she was gladdened by his touch.

I glanced at Tey and she motioned me to go on.

And ever since the cat Basht has been worshipped at Bubastis, city of cats, and ever since the priestesses of Sekmet have made barley beer with mandrakes at the Festival of the Deliverance, and thus shall it always be.

The Queen gave a great, forceful shriek, half of agony and half of effort. Her legs flexed, her hands closed on the arms of the chair with force enough to crush the wood. The cry came again, and the child was born into my mother Tey’s hands in a slippery flash followed by a fountain of blood.

I heard my sister Merope retch, but I was not sick. I was fascinated. As Tey cleared its mouth, the baby began to gasp and then to cry. Tey held it carefully close.

‘Rejoice, Great Queen,’ she said to the woman, as the attendants swathed her loins in red cloth, bound tight to stop the bleeding. ‘You have given your Lord another son.’

‘Smenkhare,’ whispered Tiye. Then she collapsed, and we were thrown out.

Ptah-hotep

I occupied the remainder of the day by instructing my new scribes, ordering more wine for Mentu’s visits, and inspecting the chest full of beautiful cloths. As a Great Royal Scribe, I could wear what I chose and I did not like much decoration. It smacked of ostentation. I was therefore considering the difference between creamy linen with a thin gold border and a starkly white one when Meryt announced, ‘Someone’s coming—someone with a lot of attendants—sit in your chair, Master, take your writing board, tell your scribes to instruct you in something; it’s the King Akhnamen may he live!’

I did as she bade me, throwing myself into my chair and grabbing a plaster board. Hanufer stood beside me and read the complaint from the temple of Osiris that the Nomarch of Heliopolis was reducing his offerings—just as Mentu had said. It was a long wait, and I had time to give him orders to send an investigator to the Nomarch and suggest that he hand over the ingot-shavings to the temple or suffer an afterlife spent inside the Great Snake, Apep. What sort of idiot risks his Eternity for a minor quarrel?

Khety, on my other side, had time to begin a summary of the preparations for the feast of Hathor-at-Dendera—she goes to Horus-of-Edfu at the end of Ephipi and there are always problems with public order—when the King finally arrived, flanked by two soldiers.

He stood in the doorway as we registered his presence and threw ourselves to the floor. I crawled forward to kiss his sandal and he signalled to me to rise by brushing his fly-whisk across my shoulder.

‘You have only a small staff,’ he commented, flicking the whisk at Khety and Hanufer. Meryt stayed where she was until one of the soldiers, shoving her with his foot, said, ‘Fetch wine’ and she rose and slid away.

‘Lord of the Two Lands, more are expected, but not many more.’

‘And you have appointed Mentu as your second. Do you believe that he will be of assistance?’

‘Lord, I believe that he may be of great assistance.’

I did not specify as to how he might assist me, and it was