House of Scorpion

by Mark Gajewski

  “Yes. That’s something.”

  ***

  Peret (Winter)

  Iry

  ***

  A porter brought word that one of my three cargo boats that Niay had constructed so far had arrived from Farkha. Good. That meant copper ingots to be sent south so Father could make weapons, and ivory for Nastasen’s workshop. For months I’d been accumulating luxuries for Father to distribute to Tjeni’s elites – carved ivory, lapis lazuli, wine. As soon as the ivory was unloaded I’d order those luxury items to be loaded. Within a day or so my boat would be on its way to Tjeni.

  I caught sight of Tamit aboard the vessel, speaking with its captain and Paser. The captain was one of Tamit’s most persistent suitors and I tried unsuccessfully to tamp down my jealousy, which was getting worse daily. An emotion I couldn’t overcome. What made it worse was I’d taken to comparing the elite women who pursued me to Tamit and always found them lacking. There was no finer woman in Ptah’s Settlement. I didn’t know of a finer woman in the valley. Or one less interested in me. Tamit caught sight of me. Her golden bracelets glittered in the sunlight as she motioned me to her. It glittered too on her golden necklace. I scaled the gangplank. She was holding a foot-long rectangular wooden plank covered with a thin layer of clay in her right hand, scratching symbols with a sharpened reed in her left. Paser was peering over her shoulder, fascinated.

  “Majesty!” The captain bowed.

  “You’re just in time,” Tamit said. “I’m showing off my latest innovation.” She held out the plank. I saw the symbols she’d devised for copper and ivory and lapis lazuli and wine inscribed in a column on the clay, and the symbols she’d concocted for quantities next to them.

  “Explain.”

  “You know the symbols, of course, Majesty. The first number next to the copper indicates how many containers of ingots are to remain on board this boat when it continues on to Tjeni. The second number is how many containers are to be unloaded here and moved to your warehouse. The numbers next to the other products indicate how many jars and containers need to be carried here from the warehouses and loaded onto this boat so they can be transported to Tjeni.”

  “You’ve figured out how to control the movement of goods between boat and destination,” I said, amazed.

  “It’s more than that, Majesty,” Tamit said earnestly. “It’s also a way to account for how many of each item we possess. Come with me to the warehouse district. I’ll show you how it all works.”

  Without waiting for my reply, Tamit hurried down the gangplank and across the quay and onto the lane that led to the warehouses. She half-ran, so fast I had trouble keeping up, her braid swinging back and forth.

  “I figured it out a few days ago,” she called over her shoulder, dodging donkeys and porters and pedestrians.

  The warehouse district ahead of us was fully enclosed waist-high on three sides. The fourth, the one that would be pierced by the gate, was higher than a man’s head. The dirt platforms both inside and out were three feet high now and rising daily. Mud-bricks were piled at strategic intervals outside the wall. Men on the ground were handing bricks one at a time to bricklayers on the platform, who were turning and placing them on the wall or handing them to other bricklayers who were standing atop the wall, laying the middle rows of the fifteen-foot-wide structure. In a week or so the platform would be too high to hand bricks up; men would carry them up a ramp onto the platforms and stack them for the bricklayers to use.

  I caught up to Tamit.

  “We’ll make three identical copies of each wooden plank every time we receive a shipment – one for the boat’s captain, one for Hori so he can assign porters to move the goods, and one for Hemu so he can pull goods from the warehouses or move them into storage. After the loaded boat departs the harbor we’ll smooth the clay and have a fresh surface to record the next boatload.”

  We passed through the partly-constructed gate that led into the warehouse district. Goods were piled outside the warehouse entrances, either ready to be stored or transported to boats. All were labeled. Dozens of sweating porters were either carrying containers or lashing them onto donkeys.

  Tamit led me to the warehouse where we stored Father’s wine. She was somewhat breathless, her chest rapidly rising and falling. Her skin glistened from heat and exertion. She impatiently brushed a few damp strands of hair from her brow. She grabbed a blank plank, inscribed the symbol for wine with a quantity next to it. “See – this plank tells Hemu how many jars of wine need to be taken from the warehouse and moved to the boat.” She shuffled the first plank atop the second. “It matches what the captain expects to receive. Once my system’s in place, a third plank will be given to Hori so he can order the necessary number of porters to the warehouse to transport the jars to the boat, or from the boat to the warehouse.”

  “Ingenious, Tamit. As always.”

  “There’s more, Majesty. This week I had porters count every item in every warehouse. There’s a master plank in each one now to keep track of the quantity of every good stored there. As goods are added or goods are removed, the numbers on the clay will be changed to match.”

  “So I’ll always know, by looking at your planks, exactly what’s in my warehouses.”

  “Yes,” Tamit said excitedly. “And you won’t have to come here to see them. We can make you a copy. And we can use the same method to track how many measures of grain are in the granaries, and how many bolts of linen are available to distribute to workers, and jars of beer, and other necessities, or how many are needed. Even the number of workers in each workshop, or at the harbor or warehouses. But not just here in Ptah’s Settlement, Majesty. On the delta estates too, and in the delta settlements. Grain. Raw materials. Cattle.”

  “Total control of the resources of the North. Incredible.”

  “We’ll need officials to perform this tracking function full-time,” Tamit said practically. “We can’t trust random porters here or workers on estates to do it correctly. We’ll need to find men smart enough to understand and inscribe my symbols and numbers.”

  “Scribes. More mouths for me to feed, along with their families, and more huts, and more supplies. But well worth the expense. Just think – being able to quickly requisition and send supplies south at a moment’s notice may someday let Father defeat Nubt in battle. When he sees your system he’s going to be astounded.”

  “Do you really think so, Majesty?”

  “I do, Tamit. What you’ve done is revolutionary.”

  We spent the rest of the day in the warehouses, inspecting planks Tamit had created to track goods, watching porters use planks to fill orders, watching Hori put together crews to move containers based on the planks, observing as boats were loaded. By sunset we were both exhausted and triumphant in equal measure. I walked Tamit home just as night fell, still talking over the possibilities she’d unleashed.

  We stopped in front of her hut.

  “I’m not sure why you’re still living here,” I said disapprovingly. “You’re the most valuable overseer in this settlement. Say the word and I’ll give you a house among the elites.”

  “My needs are simple, Majesty. I’m happy enough living where I grew up.” She laughed. “Remember the first time you were here?”

  “How could I forget.”

  “You thought I was trying to seduce you.”

  “Silly, wasn’t it?”

  There was a long pause.

  “Would that have been so awful, Majesty?” Tamit looked up at me, her expression playful, her eyes shining, the breeze blowing loose wisps of hair.

  Tamit was so beautiful. I didn’t want to ever be separated from her. I loved her. I’d loved her for months. I hadn’t been brave enough to admit it to her. I was tired of holding back. I was tired of being alone. Impulsively, unable to restrain myself, I took Tamit in my arms and kissed her, hungrily.

  I feared she’d push me away. She melted into me instead. She kissed me back.

  We nearly tore down t
he mat that covered the entrance to her hut as we rushed inside, fumbling at kilt and skirt, dropping them in a heap on the ground. My heart was racing. So was Tamit’s. We didn’t take time to light a bowl of oil. We barely took time to unroll her pallet. We fell onto it.

  Afterwards, Tamit lay in the crook of my arm, her head resting on my chest, one leg atop mine, both of us drenched with sweat, breathing hard in the darkness. She’d unbraided her hair after our lovemaking and it spilled about us. I didn’t want this moment to ever end. I’d never been so happy and content my entire life. I stroked her arm and hip and leg with my free hand, over and over. How I’d longed to do that.

  “Have you ever been in love with a woman, Majesty?” she asked hesitantly after our hearts had stopped pounding somewhat.

  “I think you can call me Iry now, Tamit,” I said tenderly.

  “Are you trying to dodge my question? Iry.” She said it shyly.

  I kissed her brow. “I met a woman once, Matia, the daughter of the king of Nubt.” I hadn’t thought about her for a long time. “We were both attending the coronation of the king of Nekhen.”

  “Was she beautiful?”

  “Very. We spent most of every day together for a week. This happened eight or nine months before I came to Ptah’s Settlement. I was smitten. I’d never met anyone like her. Bold, willing, enticing. The two of us negotiated an alliance between our fathers. We were supposed to marry to seal it.”

  “So you did love her.” Tamit rested her hand on my chest.

  I felt her bracelets, cold and hard. Like my heart had been for so long. “The alliance between Tjeni and Nubt fell apart, Tamit. An hour later I watched her walk into a tent with her new husband.”

  Tamit drew in her breath. “You must have been devastated,” she said softly.

  “Not by that. But by something that had happened an hour earlier. You see, I’d overheard Matia telling her sister how she’d pretended to be in love with me so she could manipulate me into creating the alliance on terms favorable to her.”

  “She deceived you.”

  “Many women and girls before Matia had paid attention to me because I’m a king’s son. She was the first who’d ever paid attention to me because she cared for me – or so I thought. I haven’t trusted a woman since.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Completely, Tamit. I know you didn’t sleep with me because of my title. In spite of it.”

  She lightly stroked my chest with her fingers.

  “Have you ever loved a man, Tamit?”

  “I won’t lie, Iry. I’ve been with many boys and men. I didn’t love any of them. I don’t remember half their names.” She rolled onto her side and propped herself on her elbow, a dark shadow looming over me. Her hair spilled over her shoulders and onto my chest. “To tell the truth, this past year I’ve been trying to distract myself from wanting you.”

  “So… you want me?”

  “Didn’t I just show you?”

  I pulled her on top of me and kissed her again, long and passionately.

  “Was this a mistake, Iry?” she asked afterwards, a bit breathless.

  I tensed. Had I just gained Tamit only to lose her? “Why would you say that?”

  “How can someone like me even dream of being with a king’s son? I’m a commoner, as you’ve taken pains to point out on many occasions.”

  “Not for a long time.”

  “You’ll marry a fine lady from Tjeni someday, or a king’s daughter like Matia. That’s what kings’ sons do, isn’t it? Especially sons who want to be king in their own right.”

  “We’re talking about marriage now?” I teased.

  “Of course not, Iry. Tonight we took pleasure in each other. I hope we will again. Very often. But maybe that’s the best we can hope for. Someday your father will send for you and you’ll leave Ptah’s Settlement behind. And me. Maybe a few stolen moments are all I’ll ever have with you. Maybe they’ll have to be enough.”

  “Maybe for you, Tamit. But not for me. I love you. Desperately.”

  “Really?”

  “For a long time. I’ve been afraid to tell you. I feared you’d laugh in my face and tell me to go away. You’ve done that before.”

  “I love you too, Iry.”

  I kissed her, tenderly. “I want more than a little stolen pleasure, Tamit. I want this all the time, you in my arms, you in my bed. I want you to be my wife.”

  She gave a little gasp. “How could it possibly work – a commoner and a king’s son?”

  “You’re not a commoner anymore. I elevated you. Rather, you elevated yourself.”

  “Your father will object. Isn’t he counting on using you to seal another alliance?”

  “I’m a third son, Tamit. Father has Lagus and Mekatre for that. He’ll forgive me once he gets to know you.”

  “But what about you? Don’t you need to have options for when you’re king?”

  “You said when – not if.”

  “I believe in you, Iry. And I couldn’t stand to love you and lose you.”

  “You won’t. I promise.”

  “What would people in the settlement say if you took me to wife?”

  “That I’m the luckiest man in the valley.” I laughed. “What can they say, Tamit? For all practical purposes I’m king here. Who’d challenge anything I did?”

  “I would. I have.”

  I kissed her. “You’re the only one who’s ever gotten away with it.”

  “I’ll never stop challenging you, Iry. Even if I’m your wife.”

  “I hope you won’t. It’s your fierceness I admire most of all. So, Tamit, will you come with me to my house and be my wife?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes, My Love.”

  Joy swept over me like a wave. I’d never forget this night, this moment, when I won the woman I loved. “But we’ll spend the night here,” I said. “Just two ordinary people caught up in a blissful dream.”

  Tamit kissed me. And nothing else in the entire world mattered.

  3257 BC: 9th regnal year of Scorpion, King of Tjeni

  Akhet (Flood)

  Iry

  I rolled onto my side. I was still sleepy. A shaft of sunlight illuminated the room. Tamit was sitting on a stool in front of a wooden table filled with combs and containers of ocher and malachite and unguents and a grinding palette and reed brushes and boxes of jewelry. A copper see-face was propped against the wall. She was freshly-bathed, her light-brown skin glistening, running an ivory comb through her long wet gold hair.

  Tamit turned at the noise. “You’re awake! How long have you been watching me?”

  “Not nearly long enough. I could stare at you for hours.”

  She set down her comb and crossed the room and pulled back the linen sheet and climbed into bed and kissed me.

  I rested my hand on her hip. She rested hers on my waist.

  “Have you figured out how you’re going to tell King Scorpion?” Tamit asked, her dark eyes searching mine. She hadn’t applied malachite yet.

  Father was due to arrive later today to inspect Ptah’s Settlement for the first time. He’d finally yielded to Sety’s urging to visit. I’d been on edge for days, making my expectations clear to each of my overseers individually. I wanted everything to be perfect so Father would be impressed. I’d risked my future by staying in the North and seizing control of Ptah’s Settlement. I’d done it with the express purpose of setting myself apart from my brothers in Father’s eyes. I was proud of what I’d accomplished. No one in the valley could’ve done what I’d done. My fear was that Father would focus on my unapproved marriage and my appointing a female overseer and ignore what was really important – that I’d created a settlement that for all practical purposes had positioned him to control the majority of the river and the North. A settlement I was convinced would someday be more important than Tjeni itself.

  “That you’re an overseer and my wife? Not yet.”

  “I’m going to leave my stick at home until you do,�
�� Tamit said decisively.

  “You shouldn’t have to,” I apologized.

  She stroked my cheek with her fingertips. “It doesn’t upset me in the least, Beloved. Wait for the right time for both. No matter how long. It’s important that the king focus on what you’ve accomplished here, not on me.”

  As always, wise, and thinking along the same lines as me.

  “I wouldn’t have accomplished half as much without you, Tamit. These past eight months, since we married, have been the happiest of my life. I love you more every day. Some mornings I lay abed for a long time, just watching you sleep. I thank the gods for the joy you’ve brought into my life.”

  Tamit kissed me. “I feel the same way, Iry.”

  “Whatever else happens while Father’s here, at least we won’t have to sleep apart. That’s why I constructed a small per’aa for him.”

  “What if King Scorpion tells you to take away my stick?”

  “I’ll have to, of course. And then I’ll give it back as soon as he sails away.”

  Tamit frowned. “I’m serious. What if King Scorpion tells you to set me aside as your wife? What if he orders you to give me up?”

  It was a possibility, one that had been weighing on my mind. “I won’t tell him about us until he gets to know you, Tamit. Everyone loves you. He will too.”

  “But what if he doesn’t? What if he has plans to use you to seal an alliance? What if he can’t get past the fact I’m a commoner?”

  “Be prepared for Father to call you a lapwing, Tamit. He has no respect for commoners.”

  “That makes it worse.”

  “If Father tells me to give you up we’ll run away,” I promised.