The Forgotten Papyrus (The Mummifier's Daughter Series Book 5)

by Nathaniel Burns

  Shabaka nodded his head. “But is there anyone in particular you could think of who would benefit of your passing?”

  Dagi shook his head, and Neti feared that it might fall from his shoulders, because the movement seemed extremely pronounced. “No, they may covet what I have but they all have benefited from my wealth. There is a greater diversity of products, more intricate patterns, like this mat in my room”, he said pointing at the floor with a shaking hand. “It was woven by an elderly woman who had woven mats all her life but was prevented from making one as big because she thought she would never find someone to purchase it. The pharaoh would not want a reed mat such as this, he prefers animal hides. I paid her two silver debben for it. It incorporates many different patterns which form a river scene when viewed from the correct position.”

  Neti looked at the mat they were standing on, shifting a few paces to look at it from a different perspective, but could not really make out the scene, yet she did make out the intricate work and appreciated the skill it must have taken.

  “She has woven several smaller mats after that”, the man continued, “almost all of them were bought by fellow traders. You see, I do not think any of them would wish me harm. They all have benefited from the talented people I found. I cannot see why anyone would want it to end.”

  “Do you still provide the raw materials?”, Shabaka asked, “Your wife mentioned that you did at first.”

  “No, not for about two dry seasons now. I made it possible for those who sell raw goods and those who refine them to meet up. There are traders who specifically bring wood to the region for carving. They now trade without me as an intermediary. There cannot be anyone who would want me dead, none of them have any outstanding debts or would need me removed in order to benefit from the craftsmen.”

  “Tell us more about this premonition this soothsayer made. What did he tell you?”, Neti ventured to ask.

  “It is more what he has not told me that concerns me”, Dagi said. “In the past he has always been meticulous about these things, could describe the areas where things would happen. I was never given a random answer… but this time it was different. The he told me about my impending death using only a few words, and even then I had to worm them out of him.”

  “Tell me”, Shabaka requested.

  The man remained silent for several moments. He lowered his gaze as he gathered his thoughts. “It was like any other visit. We arrived at his home”, Dagi started, lifting his gaze to Aya as he spoke, “Aya brought flavored flatbreads and sweetmeats for the children, you know, my wife loves making it for them, she would be a good mother... I went inside to see him; only he seemed more unwilling than usual to talk to me. I pushed and he insisted I leave, so I asked him which way would be best to travel with the pharaoh’s tithe.

  He then said that there was no way that would be advantageous to me. I then asked him if I should use camels, donkeys, dray breasts or send it by river yet he told me it would not matter either way. His response angered me and I demanded the meaning behind his words. He again asked me to leave, actually insisted that I leave, saying that ‘No good comes from looking into the future.’ I thought he wanted something from me, but never in the past had he requested anything, and I have grown quite dependent on his visions. So I demanded him to tell me what he wants. His entire body stiffened before he finally answered me. With a hesitant voice he said, ‘I have never asked you for anything, but since you are determined to know, it does not matter which you choose for you will be dead before the caravan’s departure.’

  It took several moments for me to take in his words, and I demanded to know how. Again he would not answer me. I urged him; forced it from him and his words have haunted me ever since…”

  “What did he say?”, Shabaka asked and Neti saw Aya cringe at the question.

  “He said, ‘On the evening of the next full moon, when it reaches its zenith you will fall at the feet of a beast.’”

  Shabaka looked at Neti with a confused look on his face. Neti wondered how the man could take these words so seriously or seriously enough for him to pine away as he had.

  “And you believed him?” Shabaka asked, “Meanwhile your mere knowledge of this event could prevent it from happening.”

  “He has never been wrong, and how am I to know what beast to be looking for. He refused to tell me more, and I have since forbidden boarding any exotic animal in my pens. Only the dray and pack animals remain, I have even sent away the dogs. I have even gone as far as bringing in a scorpion catcher to remove any scorpions, but they found none.”

  Shabaka again exchanged looks with Neti. “And what are you doing now?”

  “I’m waiting”, Dagi firmly replied, “I know well that I cannot outwit death again, I have done so too many times before. This time it will come for me.”

  “And you just sit here and wait for it, thinking about it all day long?”, Neti angrily asked. She doubted that he realized what he was doing to the woman closest to him, to Aya.

  “How can I not think about it”, he vehemently replied. “When someone has helped you to become as successful as I am using their talent, when they tell you that you are going to die, when each and every one of his previous predictions came true, why should I believe that this one will not? No, if I move from here it could happen as well, maybe even sooner than the gods have planned. Here in my home it is safe. I will be safe, and now you are here.”

  Neti remained unsure whom he was trying to fool, because by the looks of it, he was closer to death than to life. His heart only had to stop for it to be so, but she said nothing and left it to Shabaka to talk to the man.

  Shabaka instead turned to Aya, “I would like to meet this Menwi. I want to talk to him myself.”

  Aya cringed and seemed petrified by the idea and hesitantly replied, “We have not been there since that dreadful evening.”

  “You do not have to accompany us, only tell us where he lives.”

  Aya remained silent for several moments before finally nodding, “I will arrange for the chariot-dray to take us this evening when he should be home.”

  “Thank you. I will also need you to think of anyone who could want your husband dead, for whatever reason.” Shabaka then turned to Dagi, “I will request some of the palace guards to come here, and will have the surrounding areas searched for any wandering beasts.”

  Neti stepped forward and placed her hand on Shabaka’s arm, “It may not be an animal you are looking for”. Shabaka’s brow furrowed as he looked at her. “It could be metaphorical. A beast of a person, a beastly god, it does not have to be an animal.”

  Shabaka nodded in understanding, and said “We will ask Menwi.”

  9

  Chapter Nine

  The sun was quickly setting on the horizon as they made their way towards Menwi’s house. Aya skillfully steered the dray-chariot while an ominous silence befell the occupants.

  Neti looked at the basket of sweetmeats she held. She did not understand why they had deemed it necessary to bring them and then looked at Aya who became increasingly agitated the closer they came to Menwi’s house. It was obvious that she had no desire to be there, and Neti could understand, since everything inside of her screamed that she should not allow Shabaka to go there either - that it would be better if they stayed away.

  The house they were to visit was easily identifiable, because as Aya had previously said, Huya was waiting for them outside, as if she knew they were coming. The chariot-dray came to a stop and from Huya’s expression it was obvious that she did not want them there.

  Aya took the basket from Neti and within moments of its emergence several young children appeared from seemingly nowhere. Neti watched as she handed each of the children one of the sweets before turning to address Huya, “These people wish to speak with Menwi.” She said in Egyptian.

  Huya turned to look Neti and Shabaka over, who had taken it as indication that they could leave the chariot-dray.

  “Menwi said he has
nothing to say to the Nubian prince”, Huya said tilting her head towards Shabaka, before turning to look at Neti, who was shocked by her words. But what she felt at the woman’s words was nothing in comparison to the dread that filled her as she continued. “But he will speak with you, the mummifier’s daughter. There is something you need to know.”

  Neti hesitantly looked at Shabaka, unwilling to enter the home without him.

  “She will not go without me, I have no reason to trust him.” Shabaka firmly replied.

  The girl looked from one to the other before nodding, “He said you would object, so you may come as well. She then turned and made her way towards the doorway, which, like many others in the area, was covered only with a threadbare piece of cloth.

  Shabaka took the lead and Neti following him. She looked around the room which seemed slightly different some from how the young woman had first it described to them.

  They were shown to the back room and Neti had expected some deviation from Aya’s description there as well, but it appeared to be exactly as she had described it.

  She laid her eyes on the elderly man sitting on a stool and looking as if was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He looked up and squinted; first looking at Shabaka before shifting his gaze to Neti.

  “So you have come”, he stated rather hat asked; his voice gruff and tired.

  Neti felt her brow furrow. She found it unsettling that this man could see into the future, yet it seemed as if he actually had a problem with his own vision. He was also not surrounded by any of objects of divination that one would expect to see in the presence of a soothsayer.

  Shabaka was the first to speak, firmly asking, “You are Menwi, the man who foretells the future?”

  Menwi shifted on his stool, looking at Shabaka and only nodded in response.

  “You are the one who foretold Dagi’s death”, Shabaka pressed.

  “He forced it from me; I did not want to tell him.”

  “We need to know more, we need to prevent it”, Shabaka continued.

  “There is little you can do. When it is one’s time the Gods will take him. You cannot change that”, Menwi flatly stated.

  “Then why have you warned him in the past? Even made it possible for him to outwit death?”, Shabaka demanded with a slight edge to his tone.

  “Because it would not have been by the Gods’ hands, the Gods had greater plans for him; plans that have since come to pass. He has provided hope and a means of support to many.”

  “And that is why you spoke with him?” Shabaka demanded.

  “That is what the Gods asked me to do. My fate is as intertwined with his just as yours are.”

  “I do not believe you!”, Shabaka firmly stated.

  “Yes, I know. Because just like all the others you want proof, but what could I give you as proof? I can tell you the name of the woman you will have children with, even how many there will be, but you could defy it and change it. I could forewarn your partner…”, he pointed to Neti, “…of painful circumstances that await her, but you would not believe me.”

  “You can tell us how Dagi is going to die”, Shabaka demanded.

  “There is nothing you could do about it, it is his fate, his time.”

  “I don’t believe that! You know who is behind this. You know who intends to hurt him, or why else would you have told him?”

  “I did not tell him, he forced it from me”, Menwi said in a far more steady voice than Neti thought such an old person could possibly muster. “Do you think I enjoy knowing exactly when someone is going to die or when and how I am going to die? Knowing that I could change things, but also that it might not work, for the gods have a plan of their own?”

  “I do not appreciate your riddles nor do I have the patience to listen to them. You have given me no reason to believe that it is going happen, much less any proof. You have foretold a man his death and have made him sick. This is unforgivable!”, Shabaka said angrily.

  Menwi turned his attention to Neti, obviously refusing to listen to Shabaka any longer. He calmly said, “You are the young woman who was taken from her homeland and sold.”

  Shabaka fell silent as Menwi continued, although Shabaka’s body stiffened. “You were bought by an embalmer, whose wife was barren and they brought you up as their own child. There were three of you, another older sister and a brother. Your brother only recently killed your adoptive parents, and the Nubian price later killed him in turn.”

  Neti felt her blood run cold as he continued to speak, “You were endorsed by the pharaoh to assist the Nubian prince in his work. I will not say what you do not want spoken…” Menwi calmly said as Neti uncomfortably shifted her feet, “…for I can see your wishes, but I will not tell you how it ends. Matters of the heart can always change, and if I tell you, it will be in your power to change them, but whether such a change would be for the better you will never know. But there is one thing you need to know, something that is far more important than whatever is to happen in the days to come.” Shabaka stepped forward to intervene, but the Menwi seemed oblivious of him.

  “You have recently returned from the coastal city, where you went in search of the Nubian prince.” Neti nodded. “Before your return you purchased a young girl and took her home with you.” Neti blinked and flinched. Her heart was pounding in her chest, because only those closest to her knew about it.

  “From the moment you saw her, you felt drawn to her.” Neti again, but unwillingly, nodded. “It was her blood. “

  His words had Neti frown. She did not understanding their meaning.

  “You went to the city in search of your partner but found something far more important”, Menwi said.

  “How so?” Shabaka demanded

  “The girl is your blood, the blood of kin. She is your sister’s daughter.”

  “What?!” Neti was shocked. “How can that be?”, she wanted to know. Her heart was racing in her chest, feeling as if it wanted to escape. “Where is my sister?”

  “There is no need to concern you with your sister, because she has chosen her fate, but it was yours to find her child.”

  “My sister is dead?”, Neti hesitantly asked, even more confused.

  “No, she is well, but the child was born out of wedlock and she tried as best she could to keep her a secret, but in the end she had to get rid of her. They looked too much alike so she had to send her away.”

  “What am I to do then?”, Neti demanded

  “You have already done what was necessary. You have taken her in and shown her a different way.”

  Neti fell silent. Then she turned to Shabaka, huskily whispering, “There was no way he could have known about us going to the coastal city, few knew where Moses and I were headed when we left Thebes, and only those closest to me know of her.

  “I know”, Shabaka replied, sounding slightly insecure.

  Neti looked at Shabaka, “Which means he also knows of what you endured.”

  “Yes”, Menwi replied. “That is why you prefer to keep your back covered, unlike other men who know their chests attract the women’s attention. But the physical scars are small in comparison to those you suffered inside. All I am willing to tell you, is do not question your partner, because the things to come will test both of you.”

  “Things to come?”, Neti asked.

  “You have chosen to get involved in a situation which will only cause pain.”

  “But you refuse to help!”, Shabaka countered.

  “I cannot help”, Menwi flatly stated

  “We should leave”, Neti hesitantly said, “before he reveals things we do not want to hear”, and turned from the men. She needed a few moments to gather her thoughts.

  10

  Chapter Ten

  When Neti woke up the following morning, her eyes slowly focused on the far wall. There was no bump in the mud plaster, no difference in the shades that gave away the location of any repairs that had been made over time. These walls were smooth, with one even
color. The sheets around her were also not her own, they were crisper more finely woven than hers.

  She lifted her head from the cushion and looked around the room. Her entire body protested. She felt sore from heavy sleep. A glance around the room confirmed that she was back at the palace. She let her head drop back onto the cushion as she recalled the previous evening’s events.

  Her entire body stiffened when she recalled Menwi’s words. What he had meant by pain she did not know nor understand, unless it meant that she would somehow be injured or hurt. She lifted her head again to look around the room, her eyes focused on a bowl of fruit on a table off to one side. It had not been there the previous evening, so she looked around and noticed how high the sun had already risen; whoever had placed it there must have been told not to disturb her, a fact that vexed her.

  She shifted to sit up and for several moments remained still to listen to her surroundings. It was quiet, eerily so. She had no idea whether Shabaka had even returned home the previous evening, since he had dropped her off at the palace before bringing Aya back to her home. At that time she had been too tired to object, but in the light of day it appeared to be an unwise arrangement.

  She knew nothing of their language and doubted she could even make herself understood to the attendants. She also had no idea what to do, where to go or where she could find Shabaka. Even during her time at Pi-Ramesses she had never felt so… trapped.

  Insecurely she got out of the bed and began her day. She looked at the fruit and for a moment considered having some, yet decided against it. A short time later she stepped out of her room. Within moments of her appearance, a young servant girl came up to her and Neti was quick to notice it was the same girl who had assisted her before. The girl approached her and bowed to her in greeting, something she had never done before. Neti frown. She wanted to speak but the girl quickly held up her hand to stop her; then gestured for Neti to follow her.