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 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 saidto 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 always difficult to discern how much the Lord Akhnamen understood. I had dared to raise my eyes to his face. He was smooth and well tended, this younger son of the King. His eyes were strange, unfocussed, a dreamer's eyes, a visionary's. I never knew how to read them. Was he pleased with his selection from the School of Scribes? Was he about to order me back to obscurity? Hope rose in my breast. I could go then and find the Captain Horemheb and rejoin my own dear friend Kheperren.
'What have you found out? You gave your scribe an order. What was it?' he asked Hanufer directly.
Hanufer was not over-awed. He stood up straight, smoothed down his cloth, took his ostracon and repeated my order, word for word including the comment about the afterlife, as emotionlessly as though he was reading a laundry list. I held my breath. The King laughed and sat down in my chair.
'I think I may have chosen well,' he commented, accepting a cup of wine from Meryt's hand, after the soldier had tasted it and nodded to her to continue. 'You have everything you need? No one has offered you affront?'
I shook my head.
'And you have a guardian,' he commented, glancing at Anubis who was sitting as still as a stone hound by the door.
'Yes, Lord, I have.'
'That should preserve you from any annoyance,' he murmured ambiguously. 'I understand that you have been summoned to dine with the Chief Priest at Karnak tonight.'
'I have, Lord. Is it your will that I should attend?'
'Mmm...' he was thinking. 'Who is your god, boy?'
'Amen-Re,' I replied, surprised. Everyone's god was Amen-Re, the Sun.
'You come from the Nome of the Black Bull, do you not? Have you a special devotion to Apis or Osiris?'
'No more than usual, Lord of the Two Thrones.'
'Be