River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt (Novels of Ancient Egypt)

by Wilbur Smith

  I rushed back to my mistress’s side and fell on my knees beside her bed. ‘My darling,’ I whispered, and stroked her haggard brow. ‘It is me, Taita, your slave.’

  She stirred slightly and mumbled something I could not catch. I realized that there was little time to spare; she was far-gone. It was over a month since Tanus’ purported death. If the slave girl had spoken the truth, and she had indeed taken no food in all that time, then it was a wonder that she was still alive.

  I leaped up again and ran to my own rooms. Despite my ‘demise’ nothing had been changed, and my medicine chest was in the alcove where I had left it. With it in my arms, I hurried back to my mistress. My hands were shaking as I lit a twig of the scorpion bush from the flame of the oil lamp beside her bed, and held the glowing end under her nose. Almost immediately she gasped and sneezed and struggled to avoid the pungent smoke.

  ‘Mistress, it is I, Taita. Speak to me.’

  She opened her eyes and I saw the dawn of pleasure in them swiftly extinguished by the fresh realization of her bereavement. She held out her thin, pale arms to me, and I took her to my breast.

  ‘Taita,’ she sobbed softly. ‘He is dead. Tanus is dead. I cannot live without him.’

  ‘No! No! He is alive. I come directly from him with messages of love and devotion from him to you.’

  ‘You are cruel to mock me so. I know he is dead. His tomb is sealed—’

  ‘It was a subterfuge to mislead his enemies,’ I cried. ‘Tanus lives. I swear it to you. He loves you. He waits for you.’

  ‘Oh, that I could believe you! But I know you so well. You will lie to protect me. How can you torment me with false promises? I hate you so—’ She tried to break from my arms.

  ‘I swear it. Tanus is alive.’

  ‘Swear on the honour of the mother you never knew. Swear on the wrath of all the gods.’ She hardly had the strength to challenge me.

  ‘On all these I swear, and on my love and duty to you, my mistress.’

  ‘Can it be?’ I saw the strength of hope flow back into her, and a faint flush of color bloom in her cheeks. ‘Oh, Taita, can it truly be?’

  ‘Would I look so joyful, if it were not? You know I love him almost as much as you do. Could I smile thus, if Tanus were truly dead?’

  While she stared into my eyes, I launched into a recitation of all that had occurred since I had left her side so many weeks ago. I excluded only the details of the condition in which I had discovered Tanus in the old shack in the swamps, and the female company I had found him keeping.

  She said not a word, but her eyes never left my face as she devoured my words. Her pale face, almost translucent with starvation, glowed like a pearl as she listened to my account of our adventures at Gallala, of how Tanus led the fighting like a god, and of how he sang with the wild joy of battle.

  ‘And so you see, it is true. Tanus is alive,’ I ended, and she spoke for the first time since I had begun.

  ‘If he is alive, then bring him to me. I will not eat a mouthful until I set my eyes upon his face once more.’

  ‘I will bring him to your side as swiftly as I can send a messenger to him, if that is what you wish,’ I promised, and reached for the polished bronze mirror from my chest.

  I held the mirror before her eyes, and asked softly, ‘Do you want him to see you as you are now?’

  She stared at her own gaunt, hollow-eyed image.

  ‘I will send for him today, if you order it. He could be here within a week, if you really want that.’

  I watched her struggle with her emotions. ‘I am ugly,’ she whispered. I look like an old woman.’

  ‘Your beauty is still there, just below the surface.’

  ‘I cannot let Tanus see me like this.’ Feminine vanity had triumphed over all her other emotions.

  ‘Then you must eat.’

  ‘You promise,’ she wavered, ‘you promise that he is still alive, and that you will bring him to me as soon as I am well again? Place your hand on my heart and swear it to me.’

  I could feel her every rib and her heart fluttering like a trapped bird beneath my fingers. ‘I promise,’ I said.

  ‘I will trust you this time, but if you are lying I will never trust you again. Bring me food!’

  As I hurried to the kitchen, I could not help but feel smug. Taita, the crafty, had got his own way yet again.

  I mixed a bowl of warm milk and honey. We would have to begin slowly, for she had driven herself to the very edge of starvation. She vomited up the contents of the first bowl, but was able to keep down the second. If I had delayed my return by another day, it might have been too late.

  * * *

  Spread by the chattering slave girls, the news of my miraculous return from the grave swept through the island like the smallpox.

  Before nightfall Pharaoh sent Aton to fetch me to an audience. Even my old friend Aton was strained and reserved in my presence. He leaped away nimbly when I tried to touch him, as though my hand might pass through his flesh like a puff of smoke. As he led me through the palace, slaves and nobles alike scurried out of my path, and inquisitive faces watched me from every window and dark corner as we passed.

  Pharaoh greeted me with a curious mixture of respect and nervousness, most alien to a king and a god.

  ‘Where have you been, Taita?’ he asked, as though he did not really want to hear the answer.

  I prostrated myself at his feet. ‘Divine Pharaoh, as you yourself are part of the godhead, I understand that you ask that question to test me. You know that my lips are sealed. It would be sacrilege for me to speak of these mysteries, even to you. Please convey to the other deities who are your peers, and particularly to Anubis, the god of the cemeteries, that I have been true to the charge laid upon me. That I have kept the oath of silence imposed upon me. Tell them that I have passed the test that you set me.’

  His expression glazed as he considered this, and he fidgeted nervously. I could see him forming question after question, and then discarding each of them in turn. I had left him no opening to exploit.

  In the end he blurted out lamely, ‘Indeed, Taita, you have passed the test I set you. Welcome back. You have been missed.’ But I could see that all his suspicions were confirmed, and he treated me with that respect due to one who had solved the ultimate mystery.

  I crawled closer to him and dropped my voice to a whisper. ‘Great Egypt, you know the reason I have been sent back?’

  He looked mystified, but nodded uncertainly. I came to my feet and glanced around suspiciously, as though I expected to be overlooked by supernatural forces. I made the sign against evil before I went on, ‘The Lady Lostris. Her illness was caused by the direct influence of—’ I could not say the name, but made the horn sign with two fingers, the sign of the dark god, Seth.

  His expression changed from confusion to dread, and he shivered involuntarily and drew closer to me, as if for protection, as I went on, ‘Before I was taken away, my mistress was already carrying in her womb the treasure of the House of Mamose when the Dark One intervened. Due to her illness, the son she was bearing you has been aborted from her womb.’

  Pharaoh looked distraught. ‘So that is the reason that she miscarried,’ he began, and then broke off.

  I picked up my cue smoothly. ‘Never fear, Great Egypt, I have been sent back by forces greater than those of the Dark One to save her, so that the destiny that I foresaw in the Mazes of Ammon-Ra may run its allotted course. There will be another son to replace the one that was lost. Your dynasty will still be secured.’

  ‘You must not leave the side of the Lady Lostris until she is well again.’ His voice shook with emotion. ‘If you save her and she bears me another son, you may ask from me whatever you wish, but if she dies—’ he stopped as he considered what threat might impress one who had already returned from beyond, and in the end let it trail away.

  ‘With your permission, Your Majesty, I shall go to her this instant.’

  ‘This instant!’ he agreed
. ‘Go! Go!’

  * * *

  My mistress’s recovery was so swift that I began to suspect that I had unwittingly invoked some force beyond my own comprehension, and I felt a superstitious awe at my own powers.

  Her flesh filled out and firmed almost as I watched. Those pitiful empty sacs of skin swelled into plump, round breasts once again, sweet enough to make the stone image of the god Hapi which stood at the doorway to her chamber burn with envy. Fresh young blood suffused the chalk of her skin until it glowed once more, and her laughter tinkled like the fountains of our water-garden.

  Very soon it was impossible to keep her to her bed. Within three weeks of my return to Elephantine, she was playing games of toss with her handmaidens, dancing about the garden and leaping high to reach the inflated bladder above the heads of the others, until, fearful that she might overtax her returning strength, I confiscated the ball and ordered her back to her chamber. She would obey me only after we had struck another bargain, and I had agreed to sing with her, or teach her the most arcane formulas of the bao board which would allow her to enjoy her first victory over Aton, who was an addict of the game.

  Aton came almost every evening to enquire about my mistress’s health on behalf of the king, and afterwards to play the board-game with us. Aton seemed to have decided at last that I was not a dangerous ghost, and although he treated me with a new respect, our old friendship survived my demise.

  Each morning my Lady Lostris made me repeat my promise to her. Then she would reach for her mirror and study her reflection without the faintest trace of vanity, assessing every facet of her beauty to determine if it was ready yet to be looked upon by Lord Tanus.

  ‘My hair looks like straw, and there is another pimple coming up on my chin,’ she lamented. ‘Make me beautiful again, Taita. For Tanus’ sake make me beautiful.’

  ‘You have done the damage to yourself, and then you call for Taita to make it better,’ I grumbled, and she laughed and threw her arms around my neck.

  ‘That’s what you are here for, you old scallywag. To look after me.’

  Each evening when I mixed a tonic for her and brought the steaming bowl to her as she prepared for sleep, she would make me repeat my promise to her. ‘Swear you will bring Tanus to me, just as soon as I am ready to receive him.’

  I tried to ignore the difficulties and the dangers that this promise would bring upon us all. ‘I swear it to you,’ I repeated dutifully, and she lay back against the ivory headrest and went to sleep with a smile upon her face. I would worry about fulfilling my promise when the time came.

  * * *

  From Aton, Pharaoh had a full report of Lostris’ recovery and came in person to visit her. He brought her a new necklace of gold and lapis lazuli in the form of an eagle and sat until evening, playing word-games and setting riddles with her. When he was ready to leave, he called me to walk with him as far as his chambers.

  ‘The change in her is extraordinary. It is a miracle, Taita. When can I take her to bed again? Already she seems well enough to bear my son and heir.’

  ‘Not yet, Great Egypt,’ I assured him vehemently. ‘The slightest exertion on the part of my mistress might trigger a relapse.’

  He no longer questioned my word, for now I spoke with all the authority of the once dead, although his previous awe of me had worn a little thin with familiarity.

  The slave girls also were becoming accustomed to my resurrection, and were able to look at my face without having to make the sign. Indeed, my return from the underworld was no longer the most popular fare of the palace gossips. They had something else to keep them busy. This was the advent of Akh-Horus into the lives and consciousness of every person living in the land along the great river.

  The first time I heard the name Akh-Horus whispered in the palace corridors, I did not immediately place it. The garden of Tiamat beside the Red Sea seemed so remote from the little world of Elephantine, and I had forgotten the name that Hui had bestowed on Tanus. When, however, I heard the accounts of the extraordinary deeds ascribed to this demi-god, I realized who they were speaking about.

  In a fever of excitement, I ran all the way back to the harem and found my mistress in the garden, besieged by a dozen visitors, noble ladies and royal wives, for she had so far recovered from her illness as to resume once more her role as court favourite.

  I was so wrought up that I forgot my place as a mere slave, and to be rid of them I was quite rude to the royal ladies. They flounced out of the garden squawking like a gaggle of offended geese, and my mistress rounded on me. ‘That was unlike you. What on earth has come over you, Taita?’

  ‘Tanus!’ I said the name like an incantation, and she forgot all her indignation and seized both my hands.

  ‘You have news of Tanus! Tell me! Quickly, before I die of impatience.’

  ‘News? Yes, I have news of him. What news! What extraordinary news. What unbelievable news!’

  She dropped my hands and picked up her formidable silver fan. ‘Stop your nonsense this instant,’ she threatened me with it. ‘I’ll not put up with your teasing. Tell me, or I swear you’ll have more lumps on your head than a Nubian has fleas.’

  ‘Come! Let’s go where nobody can hear us.’ I led her down to the jetty and handed her into our little skiff. Out in the middle of the river we were safe from the flapping ears that lurked behind each corner of the palace walls.

  ‘There is a fresh, clean wind blowing through the land,’ I told her. ‘They call this wind Akh-Horus.’

  ‘The brother of Horus,’ she breathed it with reverence. ‘Is this what they call Tanus now?’

  ‘None of them know it is Tanus. They think he is a god.’

  ‘He is a god,’ she insisted. ‘To me, he is a god.’

  ‘That is how they see it also. If he were not a god, how then would he know where the Shrikes are skulking, how else would he march unerringly to their strongholds, how would he know instinctively where they are waiting to waylay the incoming caravans, and to surprise them in their own ambuscades?’

  ‘Has he accomplished all these things?’ she demanded in wonder.

  ‘These deeds and a hundred others, if you can believe the wild rumours that are flying about the palace. They say that every thief and bandit in the land runs in terror of his life, that the clans of the Shrikes are being shattered one by one. They say that Akh-Horus sprouted wings, like those of an eagle, and flew up the inaccessible cliffs of Gebel-Umm-Bahari to appear miraculously in the midst of the clan of Basti the Cruel. With his own hands, he hurled five hundred of the bandits from the top of the cliffs—’

  ‘Tell me more!’ She clapped her hands, almost capsizing the skiff in her enthusiasm.

  ‘They say that at every crossroads and beside every caravan route he has built tall monuments to his passing.’

  ‘Monuments? What monuments are these?’

  ‘Piles of human skulls, high pyramids of skulls. The heads of the bandits he has slain, as a warning to others.’

  My mistress shuddered with delicious horror, but her face still shone. ‘Has he killed so many?’ she demanded.

  ‘Some say he has slain five thousand, and some say fifty thousand. There are even some who say one hundred thousand, but I think those must be exaggerating a little.’

  ‘Tell me more! More!’

  ‘They say he has already captured at least six of the robber barons—’

  ‘And chopped off their heads!’ she anticipated me with ghoulish relish.

  ‘No, they say that he has not killed them, but transformed them into baboons. They say he keeps them in a cage for his amusement.’

  ‘Is all of this possible?’ she giggled.

  ‘For a god, anything is possible.’

  ‘He is my god. Oh, Taita, when will you let me see him?’

  ‘Soon,’ I promised. ‘Your beauty burns up brighter every day. Soon it will be fully restored.’

  ‘In the meantime you must gather every story and every rumour of Akh-Horus an
d bring them to me.’

  She sent me to the shipping wharf every day to question the crews of the barges coming down from the north for news of Akh-Horus.

  ‘They are saying now that nobody has ever seen the face of Akh-Horus, for he wears a helmet with a visor that covers all but his eyes. They say also that in the heat of battle the head of Akh-Horus bursts into flame, a flame that blinds his enemies,’ I reported to her after one such visit.

  ‘In the sunlight I have seen Tanus’ hair seem to burn with a heavenly light,’ my mistress confirmed.

  On another morning I could tell her, ‘They say that he can multiply his earthly body like the images in a mirror, that he can be in many different places at one time, for on the same day he can be seen in Qena and Kom-Ombo, a hundred miles apart.’

  ‘Is that possible?’ she asked, with awe.

  ‘Some say this is not true. They say that he can cover these great distances only because he never sleeps. They say that in the night hours he gallops through the darkness on the back of a lion, and in the day he soars through the sky on the back of an enormous white eagle to fall upon his enemies when they least expect it.’

  ‘That could be true.’ She nodded seriously. ‘I do not believe about the mirror images, but the lion and the eagle might be true. Tanus could do something like that. I believe it.’

  ‘I think it more likely that everybody in Egypt is eager to set eyes upon Akh-Horus, and that the desire is father to the act. They see him behind every bush. As to the speed of his travels, well, I have marched with the guards and I can vouch for—’ She would not allow me to finish, but interrupted primly.

  ‘There is no romance in your soul, Taita. You would doubt that the clouds are the fleece of Osiris’ flocks, and that the sun is the face of Ra, simply because you cannot reach up and touch them. I, for my part, believe Tanus is capable of all these things.’ Which assertion put an end to the argument, and I hung my head in submission.