Heart of the Lotus

by Mary R Woldering

  “Still raw over her?” Hordjedtef inquired.

  “Not especially. All that upset me was the way she and Lady Ariennu were treated as house pets and ‘given’ to Maatkare, when we both know he is rough on women. Her Highness Meryt…” Wse deliberately spoke the name of the dead princess. You bring up Naibe to me and I will bring up Meryt and her short life and how you had to cover her death…

  “Oh, I think he has calmed himself through the Ta-Seti woman he first chose,” the elder replied. “She and none of her maids have come complaining to me of his treatment… only Lady Sadeh, the mother of his children, who feels displaced. That’s his difficulty and no one else’s. Here, have some of this pickled melon rind to cleanse the palate, then we’ll take some creamed broth after we get to the contents of the flint box you’ve brought.” Hordjedtef held forth a sweet and sour delight, bit a piece of it, and then offered the rest to Wserkaf.

  The Inspector munched happily, a pleasant smile spreading over his face at the taste, as Hordjedtef quaffed his tea and called for the servant to bring more.

  “Here. Wse dear, go get the box and bring it over to us. I want to go over what you and your father were able to translate,” he stood, then went to fetch the new jug of tea the servant had brought out.

  Wserkaf rose from his seat, smoothed his shendyt, and bent to snag one more piece of rind. Then, he moved to the box and brought it, opening the lid to see if all the items looked undisturbed. After he set it down, he lifted one of the golden tubes, took out the wax stopper, unrolled the prayer within, and then read it. He colored slightly, realizing he really couldn’t tell Hordjedtef exactly what it said without provoking the man’s ire considering how the elder felt about the distribution of knowledge to all who asked to receive it.

  There is a fresh water river that flows

  From the Lake of Memory

  The gods guard it and they will try you

  You must say to them:

  “I am the child of Earth and starry Heaven;

  But my race is of heaven alone.

  It reminded him of something Marai told him when they had parted company at the well as the big man headed to Ta-Seti to find the women.

  “To me, Great One, it supports that it is not in accord with Ma-at at all that we keep these things private. It must be the lesson the gods were teaching us when they sent an outlander with the keys and why some of the text is in foreign writing, can’t you see that? It isn’t for us alone. It’s for all who are ready to know,” Wserkaf looked up at Hordjedtef, sweat beading slightly under his linen-lined collar.

  The elder stared, then blinked. “I see. Are you certain? It sounds like a different form of the Going Forth by Day passage the candidates recite. In that case, it just proves that the gods wrote these and we are right to learn them. Are you certain that is a word for word translation, Dear One? We know there is immense power in wording and that wrong speech is as punishable by doom and a trip to the jaws of Ammit as is falsehood,” Hordjedtef sipped his tea once more.

  He suspects me, Wserkaf forced a grin and rolled up the text, re-inserting it in the tube. I’d better think of something to test what he knows, he lifted the green glassy tablets with the Shinar text.

  “The rest of these say about the same thing, some implying the same thing the sojourner tried to say when he lived, that we should not be guarding these teaching too jealously.”

  “And yet the text you just translated mentioned something of the god born and that has always meant those of ‘the blood royal’, no?” Hordjedtef’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the green plaques. “Are these the mythical…” he started, almost astonished. “I thought they might be as a youth, but when I saw them before at your father’s house they looked less interesting.”

  “The emerald tablets of the great Djehut?” Wserkaf lied as carefully as he could. “No, but I think those who crafted these may have seen the real ones of legend or else were blessed to see them in the possession of the god. Father and I decided that Djehuti must have meant something else. These are green crystal, like the star glass found in the wilderness, but created in large flat pieces, then inscribed with a kind of fire tool. The Shinar, perhaps, can do this – if they placed their own text on it.”

  “Dear one…” Hordjedtef shook his head. “What’s going on here? You can’t tell me you read this. If you had, you would know it’s a text about the mimic of earth world and star world… it is the genuine thing and you know it. ‘As above, so it is below’…you know that. It was the very thing the Akkad peasant was yammering and writing about when there was no way he could have been taught such verses. It tells of how the god came to earth and created man and where he went after he left Kemet. I don’t know much Shinar, but I recognize enough to see that. Why lie to me after so many years?”

  Wserkaf hung his head, defeated and trying to figure a way out of the corner into which he had backed. This is what Djerah was talking about, even though it took place before I was born. One I trust would betray me, yet I didn’t trust Him. I only believed him when he said he had not read or seen it.

  “But you said you had never seen it,” Wse burst out.

  “I did see it, but I told you no lie. I may has well have not seen them because I saw these things so briefly. The Great Djedi told me everything to expect on these tablets and that if I studied diligently and put aside the angers of my youth the rest would become easy for me. I daresay I am not the same ill-tempered creature he tried to tame. Hearing you judge me, your own teacher, and deny this of me yet, makes me sad. Who gave you the order to lie to me? Userre? Their majesties? Gods forbid the women didn’t put you under a spell of the loin for it.”

  “I didn’t mean…” Wserkaf protested until he felt the elder’s hand on his shoulder; the rasp of the leather handpiece as the man attempted to soothe him.

  “I understand. It was the sojourners. They confused you more than I thought they did; encouraged you to break from truthfulness and trust. Stay here,” he patted again, then pushed off from Wse’s shoulder. “I need to walk and be level. I can fix this. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  Wserkaf’s head snapped around. He saw that the elder was visibly shaken and was moving toward his private room.

  That does it. He tricked me and I stepped right into it. I should expose the old buzzard about what he did to my mother after all… about everything he’s covered up… tell him she and the ghost of his former master gave the order to break from him, but I need to see what else he knows. I’ll play it off and get his trust back. It’s the only way.

  Wserkaf thought of the Wdjat, sitting in a jewel-laden box in the king’s bedroom. He wondered, since Hordjedtef knew or seemed to know about the contents of the box, if he knew it was missing. He straightened the contents and stood to stretch, then shook his head, dizzily.

  Oh, stood up too fast, he thought, I must need more fluids to balance me. He picked up three pieces of the pickled rind and the cup, ate the rinds quickly and downed the tea, then went to the woven frame bed under the awning where Hordjedtef often lay in meditation.

  The dizziness eased and he lay back. Must be tired from the recent travel and the stress of this day. Funny, I used to feel lighter than air when we spoke to each other all these years. Now I feel as if I’m being watched and judged over every thought and syllable. He opened his eyes but found they wouldn’t focus. The power to raise his head from the pillow was gone.

  Gods. He didn’t. I knew he could do this to others, even to the king perhaps, but me? Why would he do this to me? I’m his Dear One – his successor. I’m imagining... so strong. Help me, he thought of sending a call out for Khentie so that she would sense it and send a courier to fetch him to the palace, but then he couldn’t even be certain where he was. On one level, he thought he was in the sunlit plaza under the shade of an awning. On another, it seemed he had been swept back in time to the week before, when he was standing in the secret chamber and was trapped on one side with Khentie on the other. She was
beating on the stone door, screaming and unable to hear or rescue him. Naibe. His thoughts cried out once again, just as they had cried that early morning.

  “Ah, Wse dear, I see you enjoyed more of the rind I left for you while I was gone.”

  Wserkaf heard a voice than now sounded wretched, wicked, and croaking. “You thought I would dose the tea, but you saw me drinking it with you and that eased your heart. When I gave you the rind, I bit a small amount but spit it in my cup as I drank my sip then tossed it out when I brought out more. Perhaps you, my once valued inspector, need an update in your perceptions of life and all things.”

  Wserkaf felt shadows closing in around him and understood…

  Sweet Horizon. He gave me Sweet… Goddess don’t let him kill me.

  “No Dear One, I won’t kill you. I couldn’t,” he whispered as if he had heard all Wserkaf’s thoughts pouring from him. “You are son of my heart, after all; the heir I chose when the gods did not give me one who survived. You are my beloved one.”

  Wserkaf felt himself fading into warmth and darkness with a light in the back of a long tunnel. The face in the light was his mentor, but that was changing into something ruddy skinned and terrifying that wasn’t even Hordjedtef but something far scarier. He felt its lips brush his clammy brow and felt a jolt of something almost heart stopping. It had been in the tunnel and the chamber posing as his Master. But the drug? That was all Hordjedtef.

  You gave me Sweet…

  “…Horizon. Yes, but not too much. Just enough so that you will accept my thoughts and I will know all of yours. Just enough…”

  Chapter 26: “Dance of Death – Inception”

  By early afternoon of the day after Djerah’s boat had made its night flight, the Akaru and his grandson arrived in Qustul Amani.

  Immediately upon his arrival, he sent messengers to Ineb Hedj with word of Maatkare’s misdeeds and the pseudo rebellion he had tried to start. All were confident that when the prince arrived for the funeral, he would likely be taken into custody. Even with Hordjedtef arguing for him, he would likely be forbidden to return. If he wasn’t banished in disgrace, he would be given an alternate command such as the Copper Road or sent to the Shinar hills. They felt they had seen the last of him, but the damage had been done. The citizens of Buhen and Qustul also didn’t fully understand that as a host, he would be almost impossible to seize.

  Amid minor celebrations at the homecoming there was still much sadness. Men had been senselessly killed and Buhen had been put to the torch. It would be a long time before it was rebuilt.

  The Akaru entered his house and greeted Xania and his other wives, who had quietly kept watch while he was gone. Aped was reunited with his own family in their tent outside.

  “And Marai?” Naibe greeted the Akaru with her own embrace, hopeful of news. “When will he return?”

  “Who is to say these things?” the elder had answered, showing the fatigue that Naibe knew was emotional rather than physical.

  She fell back and added: “I’m sorry, Lord Akaru. I just miss him so much, even when he is apart from me for no longer than an hour,” she shook her head and tried to brighten Akaru’s mood.

  “Oh, you are a dear one, as Marai says – a goddess walking. You are just what he deserves. I know he will be here in perhaps another day, when he has finished with the prince and the one he calls Deka,” Akaru embraced her reassuringly.

  “Let me help you set some cool bedding,” Naibe suggested to Xania that perhaps they should sleep even though it was a bright afternoon. Djerah had gone out to work on the fascinating boat that the people of Qustul were already calling the “sun-maker”, because it had glowed before it rose and sped off in the air the night before. Ariennu was outside too. If she was going to be alone, Naibe thought, she could sew or get the nap she missed earlier due to her session with the Children of Stone.

  Soon, the brief gathering inside the Akaru’s gathering area broke up and those assembled went about moving the rest of the new arrivals to the places they would stay.

  Naibe was sweeping out the larger room where Aped and his young wife and child would stay with him so their tent could be loaned to others. She felt dizzy, paused, and put the back of her hand to her brow to feel the pulse of energy from her stone.

  Naibe.

  A faint voice had called in the back of her thoughts.

  Naibe paused, at first thinking it was Marai, but quickly realizing the voice sounded far too weak and thready to be his voice. Aped’s wife and young daughter were in the room with her, so Naibe hid her expression.

  Who? She sent back, but no response came. Worried, she hurried about the work and then excused herself. The women nodded knowingly, assuming it was something related to her condition and let her go. In truth, she wasn’t at all tired, she just needed the privacy of her sleep area to determine whose voice she had heard. As she crossed the plaza and walked over the pattern, the voice became clearer. She paused to sense more of it.

  I can’t fight him. Sweet H... The voice came again.

  Who? Wseriri? Who? Naibe knew it was Wserkaf. He sounds as if he’s in trouble. She took a deep breath and attempted a stronger projection of thought.

  He takes… all that I am, the helpless, whisper rattled though her thoughts.

  Wse. It’s me. I hear you, she urged. Where are you?

  House. The answer came, then silence.

  Wse! Whatever it is, fight it. I’ll ask the Children to help me. Just tell me what it is, she looked around the room quickly as it she thought she might see something she needed, then realized there wouldn’t be anything she could use. There was no answer in her thoughts about what to do and no reply from Wserkaf.

  She crawled to the basket by their beds and dug into it.

  Whatever I do, I need to hurry. He doesn’t sound good at all, she sucked in her breath and found the blue stone that had duplicated her own and had caused the strange fading in her color and density the other day. This one. It wants to tell me something. I feel it almost jumping into my hand. She sighed, put the others away, and lay back on the mat. She held it up and stared into it. What do you want me to do? she asked. I can’t be there, can I?

  Go. You are stronger than you let yourself be.

  It is time.

  But how? If I do, Djerah and Ari will be upset and worried that I am gone. Should I tell them? No. Because of this child in my belly they will stop me and tell me Marai will be worried.

  It will appear that you are here, but asleep,

  The voice that sounded as if it was Marai himself speaking, lulled her. She nodded but couldn’t resist another thought. Where is he? What has happened?

  The adversary of true wisdom has betrayed his trust

  When he opposed.

  Adversary, Naibe re-thought, but didn’t have to think very long. “The Great One,” she gasped and without hearing validation from the voices that spoke through her stone asked the last question:

  What will I do? How will he not recognize me if he sees me? She concentrated, waiting for the voice to answer

  Small things and sweet.

  Be swift.

  Be love and you will be beloved.

  She knew there would be nothing more from the stone if the phrases had become symbolic chants. It meant the situation was much more dire and urgent than she had imagined. Sleep, she thought. If he sees me I cannot look like myself. I will have something sweet to distract him, she clapped the stone in her hand on top of the one imbedded in her brow.

  She felt as if she was fainting in the winded joy she knew in Marai’s surrounding arms when he kissed her face over and over, after they had loved. Then, there was no motion. A buzzing sensation and feeling of disassociation followed. Then, she started to wake from her dream.

  The first sensation she noticed was that her feet were on the ground and she was standing up. Startled, she looked down and instantly saw she was dressed differently than she had been when she lay down in the shaded room.

  Sh
e wore a dark shift, rather than her favored white. Her bare feet were darker skinned and somewhat larger than her own.

  How is this possible? Have I entered the body of some strange girl… pregnant like me? I know I’m not in Qustul. It’s cooler here. I feel the air as if I am walking in it.

  An alleyway extended before her and wove between whitewashed walls. She’d seen neighborhoods like this in Ineb Hedj. Then, she felt something in her hands. She focused on it and saw a leaf wrapped bundle containing several date sweets identical to the ones she, Deka, and Ariennu used to make and sell in Etum Addi’s market. Some of the honey had started to ooze from the candy and was getting on her hands. She lifted her fingers and licked them, baffled that now she had not only felt cold in this spirit journey but had tasted the honey on her hands.

  She felt another floating sensation, followed by her feet landing on a different solid surface. When she raised her eyes, she saw a few servants preparing some platters of food. This was someone’s roof kitchen. The house was typical of a noble’s town estate, but it was on the small side. She sensed it sprawled slightly, wrapping around an interior pool and garden, but had only one level rather than two or three, as the palaces had. Then, she understood where she was.

  I know this place. It is Ineb Hedj! I’m in the kitchen at Count Prince Hordjedtef’s city estate, she gasped inwardly, recognizing the plaza below from the worst day of her life. A good thing I was not up on the roof that day. I would have thrown myself from it.

  She watched one servant dish pieces of meat out of the soup to serve separately. Another servant prepared fresh greens. No one looked up or gave notice that she had arrived. Maybe they can’t see me. I’ll just look over the edge and see if I can see Wse.

  As she moved closer to the edge of the roof, Naibe listened for voices in the plaza below. With the chatter between the kitchen staff, paddles stirring broth and the sound of coals smoldering in the fire, she found it hard to hear anything below. She held the bundle of dates, concentrated, and then heard: