“It is true that Athenians are sometimes brave beyond their powers, but they like to take risks and face the danger calmly. I can wage war and argue. There is no one to fight and nothing to argue about in the depths of Egypt. Everything has been built millennia ago, and some of it is already forgotten and covered with sand. Memphis loves you and you understand Egyptians, their different faiths and mystical teachings. You are initiated into their secret rituals. Be the queen of Memphis, where we were both crowned to rule. Help me here and I swear the inviolate oath of the Styx waters that I shall not call another woman a queen as long as you are with me.”
“As long as I am with you,” Thais repeated slowly, agreeing with the arguments of her wise husband.
And so she remained in Memphis alone, unless you counted the little Irenion, or Irana, as Thais called her in Doric dialect. Her daughter’s name reminded her of Persia, and the girl herself was growing increasingly like Ptolemy. Leontiscus was in Alexandria with his father. The boy expressed the same deep love of the sea as permeated Thais’ entire being, even as she was forced to live away from its gentle waves and sparkling blue expanse as if by a cruel joke of fate.
The people of Memphis honored their queen more for her kind eyes and striking beauty than for any real power, which was in fact held by Ptolemy’s envoy. Thais never tried to be an imposing ruler, having taken upon herself palace celebrations, receptions for the ambassadors and temple ceremonies. All this was wearisome for the lively Athenian. The Egyptian traditions required the queen to sit motionless for hours atop an uncomfortable throne, wearing heavy jewelry. Thais tried to make her receptions and participation in the celebrations as brief as possible.
She had to limit her riding outings to evening twilight and dawn hours. The Egyptians could not imagine their queen galloping on horseback instead of riding slowly and solemnly in a gilded carriage. Salmaakh met her end there, and they purchased a similar gray Libyan mare for Eris. Boanergos was approaching the age of twenty, and while was no longer as playful, he was still light and swift on his feet, jealously not letting any horse pass him. The beautiful pacer, purchased from the queen of Amazons according to rumors, always attracted attention in Memphis. That did not help keep their riding secret.
In the evenings Thais liked to sit on the steps of the Neit temple facing the Nile, watching the dark, mighty river as it rolled toward her native Inner Sea, waiting for the reflections of stars to sparkle in the river. These evening visits became her favorite kind of rest. Of all the mandatory signs of power, she left only the gold tiara in the shape of a snake, the sacred uraeus that descended, upon her forehead.
Eris sat one step lower, glancing at two shy Egyptian girls from noble families who carried a fan and a mirror. It was their duty to accompany the queen everywhere. Cool wind sometimes fluttered in from the river and the Egyptian girls, completely nude save for the colorful beaded necklaces and sashes, shivered and clutched at each other. Eris silently signed to them, pointing at a large coverlet of the finest wool. The girls smiled gratefully, wrapped it around themselves, and left their queen to sit in peace.
The Neit temple, where she had been initiated into the Orphic teachings and began studying the wisdom of Asia, had long since become a home for Thais. The temple priests remembered the Delos philosopher well, as they did her prior visits to the temple, and were not surprised when nine years later she revisited the temple in all the splendor of the beautiful queen of Egypt.
Since then, Thais had sometimes secluded herself in her former room between the thick pylon walls, and had become friends with the high priest of the goddess. The friendship between the young queen and the old temple servant began with the Athenian’s attempt to discover the fate of Hesiona and Nearchus. Fulfilling the wish of their late king and friend, as they promised just before his death, Nearchus had inherited the entire fleet and sailed around Arabia in order to continue the route to Egypt and Nubia across the Eritrean Sea.
After two years passed with no news of Nearchus, Thais decided that, no matter how big Arabia was, the sailors had to have reached their goal and sent word. She had heard about the trips taken by Egyptians to Punt across the Eritrean Sea in the days when Hellas had not even existed. So she began looking for knowledgeable people. It turned out to be a short search. The high priest of the Neit temple had access to secret archives where records and maps of the voyages to the distant eastern shore of Libya were kept. The Egyptians had traveled there two thousand years prior, searching for gold, ivory, incense, slaves and rare animals.
Thais’ most vivid memory was of visiting the archive somewhere in the ancient temple underground, near the small pyramid. There she had seen four attendants or priests with emaciated faces of fanatic ascetics, dressed head to toe in the green robes of Distant Land Scholars. They had accompanied the queen and the Neit priest, who served as an interpreter for the ancient sacred language. The green ascetics either knew no other language or did not wish to speak any other way.
Fragile sheets of brown vellum covered with mysterious lines, hieroglyphs and markings shaped like flying birds were unrolled before Thais.
“You said that shortly before the death of the great Alexander, Nearchus arrived at Babylon with new discoveries, did you not?” the Neit priest asked.
“His assistant, Archias, confirmed that the sea from the Euphrates delta was but a gulf between India and Arabia,” Thais said. “And Gireon stated that the southern coast of Arabia stretched infinitely far southwest.”
The Neit priest translated to the archive keepers, and their eyes flashed. One said something in a low voice and knocked the largest sheet, unrolling it on a stone tile with his knuckles.
“We do not know about the gulf,” Thais’ companion translated. “But here is the shore of Arabia, going to the west and southwest. Here it ends in a kind of angle, turning northwest through the narrow gates of the sea you call Eritrean. That sea has been traveled back and forth by our seamen. Its length has been measured to be five hundred skhens or parsangs from the Gates to the Neho canal. Two months of sailing, gods willing.”
“Then shouldn’t Nearchus have been in Egypt a long time ago?” Thais asked. “All ninety ships of his fleet could not have perished.”
“Queen, Your Majesty judges correctly.”
“What could have happened then?”
The Neit priest translated her question. The archive keepers mumbled words as mysterious as chants, poked their dark, thin fingers into various spots on the dusty map and finally reached an agreement.
“The land scholars say that the fleet leader did not make it into the Eritrean Sea,” the Neit priest said with authority.
“That could not have happened to Nearchus, the most skilled of sailors. He has the best navigators from Finikia, Egypt and Cyprus.”
“It could happen in that area. If Your Majesty would please look here … This is the southern shore of Arabia, stretching in the direction of India to the east and north for several hundred skhens. From the sound it is opposed by the huge cape of Nubia, or Libya as you call it. The Cape of Fragrances[40] protrudes into the Great Ocean like a horn. Our sailors traveled around it, facing great dangers on their way to Punt. It reaches halfway across the edge of Arabia. Then look here, Queen. Nearchus’ fleet was sailing along the shore to the southwest. Terrible storms often take place there. They bring sand and dust from the deserts of Arabia, obscuring the sea for many skhens. Nearchus could have gotten caught in such a storm when his fleet was across from the Cape of Fragrances. The shore of Arabia curves to the south near the round bay with the Cape of Pearls. Right across from that spot, the Horn of Nubia approaches as closely as eighty skhens. Imagine now, that a strong sandstorm carried the fleet to the south. The ships could have accidentally crossed the gap between Arabia and Nubia. Further, from the east side of the Horn, the shore travels south, curving more and more to the west. What would a fleet leader do, who was initially traveling southwest along Arabia?”