Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 2: Seti

by Max Overton

"In a day or two."

  "My lord," Tausret murmured, "Lady Takhat is near her time and should not travel."

  Seti looked at his wives solicitously and asked, "Lady, how are you feeling?"

  "I am well, my lord," Takhat replied. "Though I do not relish the thought of being on board a barge for so many days."

  "Perhaps I should leave you in Waset until after the birth. Lady Tausret can stay with you and keep you company. I should be back in two or three months."

  "My lord, I thank you for your consideration, but it is not necessary that Lady Tausret stay with me. It is better that she accompany you for you should not be deprived of the ministrations of both your wives."

  Seti smiled, looking fondly on both women. "I will be going to war, and that is no place for a woman."

  "My lord, forgive my presumption," Takhat continued, "but Lady Tausret has experience of war. Her knowledge may be of use to you, if not in the face of the enemy then at least in support. I will be all right here in Waset; I have my women and it will only be for a few months. When you return, I will be able to present you with a fine son...or daughter."

  Tausret frowned at this but said nothing, and Seti laughed. "Did any king ever have such wives?" he asked. Wisely, nobody refuted the king's statement.

  Two days later, just after the dawn services to Khepri the Reborn Light, which Seti conducted on the wharves of Waset, the Royal Barge pushed free of its moorings and eased out into the river. With its oars threshing the water into foam, the vessel, aided by the strong current, surged forward. Seti stood in the prow, staring forward, eager to reach Men-nefer and put into motion his plans to punish the rebels and their allies. Tausret stood with him, revelling in the breeze that tugged at her dress and keenly anticipating a return to her duties in the northern capital.

  The captain of the barge knew the river intimately and made full use of the currents, allowing his sailors adequate rest periods without unduly sacrificing speed. He even drove the barge on through the night, with watchmen on either side to shout warnings if shallows or either shore loomed in the darkness. They made it through the long stretches of the river without incident, only having to come ashore three times to replenish stores, and on the seventh day after leaving Waset, saw the high white walls of Men-nefer in the distance.

  The city was in an uproar, for Tjaty Merysekhmet had not been idle while the king was en route. Every able-bodied man had been pressed into service, either by bolstering the strength of the legions or in producing materials to further the war effort. Armourers worked from dawn to dusk, moulding and forging copper ingots into arrow heads and bright spear points, peasants cut straight reeds for arrows, fletching them with brightly dyed goose feathers, fine hide strips for strings, and workers in wood mended chariots or fashioned shields out of timber and stretched bull's hide. Horses were exercised and groomed, and soldiers marched and practiced with axe and spear. Farms around the capital and throughout Ta Mehu were scoured for foodstuffs and the produce packed into wicker baskets and sent northeast to Per-Ramesses to await the king's army.

  Despite the multitude of things happening in and around the city, both the Tjaty and the king found time for the usual round of business in the law courts and hearing petitions. Merysekhmet had had Ament brought before him on the charges of desertion and theft a few days before the king arrived back, but Ament had appealed to the king, saying he had news that only the king could hear.

  "You realise if this is just a ploy to gain you more time, it will go badly for you?" the Tjaty asked.

  "I do, my lord. Nevertheless, I must see the king."

  "Very well." Merysekhmet had Ament returned to the cells to await the king's pleasure. In the hubbub that followed the king's arrival though, it was the last day before Seti departed for the north before Ament's case came before him.

  "Ament?" Seti asked. "Not the same Ament who was Captain of the Palace Guard before I sent him to the east? What's the charge?"

  "Desertion, Son of Re, and theft of the king's property."

  "Those are serious charges. Naturally he denies them?"

  "No, Son of Re. He can scarcely do that, having the effrontery to come to Men-nefer without orders and to bring with him the two slaves he stole from Timna, I have the official complaint from the overseer of the Timna Mines."

  "Well...you can deal with it, Merysekhmet. You don't need me. A pity though, he was a good man once. Grant him a clean death, at least."

  "He appeals to the king, Son of Re. He says he has news that only you can hear. He won't tell me what it is."

  Seti scowled. "How inconvenient. Doesn't he know there's a rebellion I have to put down?" He thought for a moment, and then smiled. "Tausret can hear his case."

  "He did ask to speak to you."

  "Well I'm busy. Tell him he can either speak to the Queen or wait until I get back. Or he can just accept his fate," he added.

  Seti and the conscripts, together with the Ptah legion and a massive train of supplies left the next day, and a day later Tausret sent for Ament, having him brought to a small private audience chamber instead of the formal law court. Merysekhmet accompanied him, along with a small squad of soldiers.

  The Queen gasped when Ament was brought in with chains clinking and the filth of the prison cell clinging to him. She immediately ordered the chains struck off and the prisoner be given the opportunity to wash and don fresh clothes.

  "He is a prisoner, Majesty," Merysekhmet murmured. "He is charged with a very serious crime."

  "Do you imagine he will flee, surrounded as he is by guards? Do as I say."

  Merysekhmet bowed and went to do the Queen's bidding. A little later, he escorted a washed and perfumed Ament back to the chamber and presented him. Tausret beckoned to him to come closer.

  Ament bowed low and extended his arms. "Lady Tausret, Great Wife, I must see the king on a matter of some import."

  "Seti is with the army," Tausret replied. "He bade me listen to your case and judge it. Ament, what has happened? These are very serious charges."

  "I know, Majesty, but I am innocent of these charges."

  "How can you be?" Merysekhmet demanded. "Your very presence here with the two slaves you stole shouts your guilt for the very gods to hear."

  "Is this true?" Tausret asked.

  "Yes...and no."

  "I think you need to explain that."

  Ament paused to collect his thoughts. "Lady Tausret, the king himself gave me my orders, which were to take in hand a squad of soldiers and escort two hundred men and boys, slaves all, to the mines of the Timna Valley in the Land of Sin. The boys came from Retenu after Userkheperure put down the rebellion there."

  "Those were your orders," Tausret confirmed. "What happened then?"

  "I delivered my charges, aside from a few who had succumbed along the way, but while in Timna I saw the horrors that were visited upon the children. They were beaten, given little food and worked harder than their bodies could stand. Some were even forced underground to work in heat and foul air, always with the threat of the lash if they did not move fast enough."

  "They are slaves, Ament," Merysekhmet said. "That is how you treat slaves, or at least those consigned to the mines and quarries."

  "They are also innocent children..."

  "Not so innocent. Their fathers rebelled against Kemet, taking up arms against the king. Would you excuse that?"

  "Of course not, but that was the fathers, not the sons."

  "Spare the sons and they will grow up to seek revenge for their fathers," Tjaty Merysekhmet pointed out.

  "Anyway, that is not the worst of it," Ament said. "The younger boys...the better looking ones...were kept in the camp to serve the guards..."

  "The fortunate ones," Merysekhmet opined. "Freed from drudgery with nothing more onerous than cooking and cleaning..."

  "And being abused by the guards at night."

  "Abused how?" Tausret asked.

  Ament coughed and looked down. "Er, well, Lady Tausret...so
me men like to er, use other men...as they would a woman."

  Tausret frowned. "How? I mean...er, how?"

  "Majesty," Merysekhmet said, "it is not unknown for men to use their wives in such a way as to not allow conception to take place, spilling their seed in an unclean place, her pehut. Well, sometimes men will perform this act with other men."

  Tausret considered this for a little while. "It is not something I would countenance," she said at last, "for the whole point of conjugal relations is to produce children. And for men to do it together would never result in children, so why would they?"

  "Yet they do, Majesty. Not often, and they are usually discreet, but it does happen."

  "If they choose to do it..."

  "Forgive me, Lady Tausret," Ament interrupted, "but that is the whole point, consent. A man can consent to another man using him in this manner, but a child cannot. A child is completely within the power of a man. The guard compels a child slave to commit this act and thereby surely commits a crime."

  "Actually no," the Tjaty said. "No crime has been committed. We may not favour such an act, but there is no actual law against it."

  "Then there should be," Ament declared. "Or at least against using children in such a way."

  "And if the child consents?" Merysekhmet asked. "What then?"

  "A child is not capable of making such a choice. He would not know what was being demanded of him."

  "I'm inclined to agree," Tausret said. "I cannot remake the law, that is for the king, but it should be discouraged. Ament, you were saying that slave boys were abused in this way at Timna, does this have a bearing on your subsequent actions?"

  "Yes, Lady Tausret. A boy asked me to intervene to save his younger brother from this fate and so I took them both from the camp and, with the help of a local tribesman also outraged at the practice, brought them back to Kemet."

  "Thereby deserting your post at Timna," Merysekhmet said, "and stealing the two young boys, property of the king." He turned to Tausret. "My lady, we have an admission from his own mouth."

  "I do not think the king will miss two small boys," Tausret said with a smile. "I will dismiss that charge for his heart was acting in a kindly fashion."

  "There is still the charge of desertion," the Tjaty said.

  "Why did you leave Timna without permission, Ament?" Tausret asked.

  "There was no way I could stay there and still protect the boys, my lady. I...my orders were...well, ambiguous, you could say. I was to bring the prisoners to Timna and hand them over. They did not actually say I could leave and come home, but they also did not say I could not. I chose to come back with the boys so I could rescue them and also to plead with the king to change the fate of the captured boys still at Timna."

  "That seems like a reasonable excuse," Tausret said. "I am of a mind to forgive Ament that charge too. What do you think, Merysekhmet?"

  "I suppose the lack of specific orders to the contrary could be so interpreted."

  "Then I shall talk to my husband the king immediately upon his return. He will change the law so that children cannot be used in this way."

  Ament glanced at the Tjaty and took a deep breath, exhaling it raggedly. "Forgive my presumption, lady, but they need help a lot faster than that. Children are being abused even as we stand here and talk about it. The practice is rife in Timna..."

  "If one or two men take it upon themselves..."

  "Commander Nebamen and Overseer Mentopher are the ones encouraging this practice." Ament glanced at Merysekhmet again. "And their orders come from the Tjaty himself."

  "Preposterous," Merysekhmet said. "A blatant lie, and without any shred of evidence."

  "That is a very serious accusation, Ament. Do you have proof?"

  "No, my lady, but it is common knowledge in Timna."

  "I repudiate that utterly," Merysekhmet said, "and I ask that you act against this vicious slander immediately."

  Tausret nodded. "I cannot allow lies to be spread, Ament, so if you have no proof..."

  "The scribes will know," Ament exclaimed. "Any order to the Commander or Overseer will have had to be written down and copies made. The Chief Scribe will know where that order is to be found."

  "If that order is to be found," Merysekhmet corrected. "Which it won't. It never existed. I'd remember something like that."

  The Chief Scribe was called for (still old Anapepy) and the problem put to him. Anapepy stood in thought, idly scratching his bare belly, and eventually nodded. "I remember something that might apply."

  "What? How can you?" Merysekhmet demanded. "I have never issued an order allowing the sexual use of boy slaves."

  "With respect, Tjaty, your mind is filled with so many things you might have forgotten."

  "My lady, this is preposterous," Merysekhmet said. "I do not favour the sexual exploitation of children so why would I issue a document ordering it?"

  "Perhaps it was an order that could be misinterpreted," Ament observed. "Could you have given permission for something that..."

  "I don't believe it," Merysekhmet interrupted. "Can you produce this document?"

  "Possibly," Anapepy said. "There are a lot of scrolls to search through."

  "It is necessary we find it if it exists," Tausret said. "Look for it, Anapepy."

  "I shall do my best, Lady Tausret." The old scribe excused himself and went off to search through the baskets and shelves full of scrolls that made up his library in which, he claimed, resided a copy of every order and pronouncement made at the royal court since the latter days of the great Usermaatre himself.

  "Whether he finds it or not," Tausret said, "I want you to draw up a document to be sent out to all mines and quarries, in fact, anywhere slaves are kept, forbidding the use of slaves for sex." She saw Merysekhmet's expression and frowned. "I mean it, Tjaty."

  "It will have to be passed as law by the king."

  "I will see to that. You just draw up the document."

  "As you wish, Majesty."

  "While we wait for Anapepy to return," Tausret said, "I am prepared to rule on Ament's actions, for his removal of the two slaves is not contingent on finding an order allowing abuse of boy slaves."

  Merysekhmet shrugged. "The king has given you the power to so rule, Lady Tausret. Your decision in this matter is final, subject only to the king."

  Tausret nodded. "Then I find that Ament has not deserted his post as the command to take the slaves to Timna did not include instructions as to what to do afterward. Lacking specific instructions it was a reasonable decision to return to the palace here in Men-nefer to resume his duties as Captain of the Palace Guard. Comments, Merysekhmet? Ament?"

  "Let it be as you say, God's Wife," Merysekhmet said formally.

  "Thank you, Lady Tausret," Ament murmured.

  "Next we turn to the matter of the supposed theft of two slaves," Tausret continued. "If the boys were being ill-treated, then it was Ament's duty to report it. They are the king's property, after all. If he felt that further hurt would be visited upon them while he was in the process of reporting the acts, then he was justified in removing them."

  "It was still theft, Majesty," Merysekhmet said. "No permission was sought to remove them from Timna."

  "Timna belongs to the king?"

  Merysekhmet frowned at this statement of the obvious, but nodded.

  "As does this palace, this city, the Two Kingdoms themselves?" Tausret went on. "All of this is the king's land?"

  "Of course, Majesty."

  "Then where is the theft? Ament was merely moving the king's property around within his lands. In fact, you could commend him for protecting the king's property. I find Ament innocent of these charges and worthy of reinstatement to his former position."

  Merysekhmet looked as if he had taken an unexpected draught of vinegar instead of rich wine, but he bowed to the inevitable. "Let it be as you say, God's Wife."

  "Then that's settled. Welcome back, Ament."

  "Thank you, my lady. Er, what abo
ut the slave boys?"

  "I will have them returned to Timna," Merysekhmet said. He raised a hand to forestall any protest from Ament. "I will send an order back with them prohibiting any unnatural acts to be performed on any boy."

  "I er, sort of promised them I wouldn't send them back," Ament said.

  "That was not a promise you could make," the Tjaty said. "They are the king's slaves."

  "No more," Tausret said with a smile. "I will gift them to Ament. As his slaves he can keep them here in Ta Mehu."

  "I don't want slaves, Lady Tausret."

  "Then free them and keep them as servants."

  "I'm a soldier, lady Tausret. What would I do with servants? I am not a lord to have servants in my service."

  "Other people have servants," Tausret observed.

  "People who are well-off, not common soldiers."

  "If that is what it takes."

  Ament frowned. "Eh? Forgive me, lady, but I don't understand you."

  "If only the well-off can afford servants, then that is what you must become. Where do your sister and brother-in-law have their vineyard?"

  "Er, just outside of Per-Bast, Majesty, but what did you mean...?"

  "Then I shall make you Overseer of Vineyards in Per-Bast, with enough land adjoining your sister's vineyard to enable you to live in comfort and afford servants. You will reside there and your two servants shall minister to your needs."

  Ament gaped, and Merysekhmet muttered about the foolishness of rewarding crime, but when the Queen lifted an eyebrow in his direction, he bowed in acquiescence.

  "Let it be as you say, God's Wife."

  Chapter 20

  Royal Butler Bay speaks:

  I find myself in a quandary. I am brother-in-law to Messuwy, eldest son of the late king Baenre Merenptah, but also Royal Butler to the present king Userkheperure Seti. I ask myself to whom I owe allegiance, and the answer eludes me. If my sister was still alive, there would be no doubt, I would side with her husband and see him crowned king. Then her son Ramesses-Siptah would be heir to the throne and one day I would claim the title of God's Father like that old man a hundred years ago. And like that old man, Kheperkheperure Irimaat Ay, I might even find myself ascending the throne and becoming Lord of the Two Lands. Would that not be a wonder to behold? An Amorite servant seated on the throne of Kemet?