I closed my eyes and nodded in thanks. All I had achieved was to send Sobeck to a living death. Perhaps it would have been faster to have asked for a knife to the throat or sword-cut to the heart.
‘Secondly Mahu,’ Hotep’s eyes glinted in amusement, ‘you are to be given a commission in the Medjay. You are to go back to the Western Desert.’ He paused. ‘Finally,’ his hand fell away, ‘you are to leave now!’
I muttered my thanks and bowed, my face red with embarrassment. I rose and walked through the courtyard, ignoring Imri’s shout, my heart seething with anger. Yet even as I did so, I recalled the blood on that napkin. What was it Aunt Isithia used to say?
Ah yes. ‘He who coughs blood coughs life.’
‘He knotted veins to the Bones
Made in his workshop as his own creation.’
(The Great Hymn to Khnum)
Chapter 5
The Veiled One finished his prayer kneeling in the garden pavilion, face towards the rising sun. In one hand he held a water flower, in the other, swathed in a piece of linen, a pot of burning incense. His mother knelt beside him, her hands outstretched. I was not too sure to whom we were praying or why, yet I followed suit. The garden was empty, the air slightly cold, the mist tendrils still curling like white wraiths through the trees. The haze shrouding the sun had yet to part. Soon it would be New Year. Sirius the dog star would rise high in the eastern sky, the Ibis birds would flock back to the Black Lands and the Inundation would begin. Once again, the Nile would sweep from its mysterious source in the South to refresh the earth. Yet that day was my New Year’s Day, a moment when my life changed.
The Veiled One finished his hymn, bowed and placed the incense bowl on the ground, the flower beside it. He leaned back, chatting softly to his mother. On the small table before us were three goblets of wine and soft bread smeared lightly with eating salt. A strange meal to begin the day but, there again, I was confused. In truth, I was only half awake. I had almost been kicked out of my bed by Imri when the dormitory was still dark and cold. I thought it was connected to the previous day’s occurrence, that Hotep had changed his mind and I was to be arrested as Sobeck’s accomplice. The Kushite, however, gestured at the jug of water, bowl and napkin he had brought.
‘Come, Baboon,’ he commanded, grinning over his shoulder at the other Kushites thronging in the doorway. ‘Our master and the Great Queen want words with you.’
I had washed and dressed, carefully following the Veiled One’s guard back through the dark garden and into the Silent Pavilion.
‘Do you know who you are praying to?’ Tiye broke into my reverie. ‘Mahu, look at me.’
I went to bow again but she snapped her fingers. ‘Look at me, man.’
‘I gaze upon your face, Divine One.’
‘I am sure you do,’ she smiled wryly. ‘But this is not the place for court niceties or polite pleasantries. God’s Father Hotep has recommended that you join the Medjay and you are not happy with that.’ She looked more closely at me. ‘Your eyes are heavy. You drank deeply last night?’
‘To the very dregs, Excellency.’
The Veiled One laughed quietly.
‘No wonder. Out in the Western Desert,’ Tiye continued, ‘your skin will be burned black by the sun, you’ll be blinded by the heat, eat sand and dust and live for the next stoup of water. You are not a happy man, Mahu.’
‘Your Excellency is most perceptive.’
Tiye joined in her son’s laughter. ‘Well, you are not to go! I have made my will known. The Divine One supports me. You are to join my son’s household.’ She smiled at my surprise. ‘My son has told me all about you, Mahu, Baboon of the South. You were born alone and grew alone, yet you have demonstrated your loyalty. My son owes his life to you whilst your assistance of Sobeck is praiseworthy.’
‘Did you dream that night?’ the Veiled One demanded. He was sitting between myself and his mother. Now he leaned forward, his cold, clawlike fingers squeezing the muscles on my face.
‘I did not dream.’
‘Good.’ He kissed me gently on the cheek. ‘You must never lie to me, Mahu.’
‘Your father was a soldier,’ Lady Tiye continued, ‘a brave one. You shall be my son’s soldier: his life and his health will be your sole concern.’
‘Is his life under threat?’
‘Good, good!’ the Veiled One murmured. ‘That’s the way to begin, Mahu. Ask questions but keep the answers to yourself.’ He glanced sideways at me and winked.
‘Is my son’s life threatened?’ Tiye repeated the question. Her lower lip jutted out and she played with the simple veil which covered her rich black hair. Tiye’s face was unpainted except for kohl rings around her eyes and a light layer of carmine on her lips. She’d piled her jewellery on a small garden table just near the door. ‘Everyone who shelters in the shadow of the Divine One is threatened. Now, to my former question, to whom did we pray?’
‘To Amun-Ra?’
She shook her head. ‘To the Sun?’ Her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘To the Aten, the Sun Disc? Yes and no. More precisely, to the power which raises that sun and sets it, which sends forth the cooling breeze, allows the bud to flower, and the chick in the egg to stir.’
I remained impassive. Theology, the word of the gods, was of little concern to me. I was more intrigued by Queen Tiye’s face in the vain hope that I might meet the Beautiful One again, rather than the strange events now occurring.
‘Will you take the oath?’ Tiye continued. ‘By that power, by earth and sky, by fire and water, to be my son’s man in peace and war? Will you?’
‘Yes, Your Excellency.’
‘Good.’ She lifted the wine cup and thrust it into my hands. Picking up a piece of salted bread, she broke it into three and handed a piece to me and to her son. The rest she popped into her own mouth, chewing it quietly, her gaze never leaving me. The Veiled One and I followed suit. The bread was soft but the salt was hard and bitter and I had difficulty swallowing it. I then sipped the wine, full and strong, rich as blood.
‘You have eaten the salt and drunk the wine,’ Tiye declared. ‘You have taken the oath. Life and death, Mahu. Every time you eat bread and drink wine it will commemorate this occasion.’
Outside I heard a servant call. A horn wailed as a sign that the day had officially begun. Tiye rose and left and so it was that my life was woven into the life of the Veiled One. I was his bodyguard, his manservant, sometimes his friend and, when his moods shifted, even his opponent, someone to argue with, as well as to lecture, warn and instruct. I soon slipped into the regular routine of his household. I’d rise in the morning and join the Veiled One at his prayers, followed by meetings with different officials and flunkies of the court. I was given my own chambers in the far side of the Silent Pavilion, with washed-green walls and a small storeroom beside it.
The daily routine of the household was soothing. Sometimes I thought about Sobeck and, now and again, wondered if the beautiful woman would return. Great Queen Tiye and Prince Tuthmosis were frequent visitors and sometimes, at least once a week, God’s Father Hotep came. The latter had accepted me. He’d smile and nod, sometimes he’d draw me into superficial conversation about affairs in Thebes or visitors from abroad. He’d inform me how Horemheb and Rameses were now Captains in the Sacred Band, how Pentju and Meryre promised their worth in the House of Life whilst Huy and Maya were proving to be excellent scribes. Tuthmosis ignored me as if I did not exist. On one occasion when he met his brother alone in the small audience hall he asked that I stand outside. The Veiled One shrugged and told me to wait in the garden. For the rest, I was always close to him. He would eat before noon, rest during the heat of the day and then spend his time in a range of different studies, hobbies and pursuits.