House of Scorpion

by Mark Gajewski

  “Do you have wealth enough to support this war?” Abedu asked.

  Sabu laughed. “Nubt’s located where desert trade routes meet the river. We’re closer to the eastern sea than any other point in the valley. I control gold mines in the eastern desert. I control siltstone quarries. Take a look at Nubt’s elite cemetery – more than fifty large graves where past rulers and elites and kings lie, crammed with rich grave goods. So, yes, Abedu – I have wealth enough to support this war.”

  “Who’ll lead us in the fight?” Khab asked.

  “I’ll develop our strategy and oversee the combined attack on Tjeni. It’s my idea, and I’m spending the most,” Sabu replied.

  “I assume we’ll capture Tjeni first. What then?” Khab asked.

  “We’ll move against the eastern delta,” Sabu said. “We’ll capture Ineb-hedj. I’ll rule it and Nubt and Tjeni. You in Nekhen will be able to trade freely from the cataract to the sea. Antef will rule the delta and the North. Once the delta’s secure, we’ll jointly move into Setjet, and then Retenu. Sakan will fall before us, and the native settlements beyond.”

  Rulers were nodding heads, buying into Sabu’s grand vision. I couldn’t believe they were all so gullible. Did they really believe they could coordinate so many forces over such a vast distance against a foe as powerful as Scorpion?

  “How shall we seal our alliance?” Antef asked.

  The inevitable was coming next. I scanned the rulers’ faces. I wondered which one I was going to be sentenced to.

  “Marriages, of course,” Sabu said. “King Khab – I propose that your son Kama marry my full sister, Nebetah.” Sabu beckoned, and his sister moved from the side of the hall to stand beside Khab.

  He chucked her under the chin, looked her up and down appreciatively. She was in her mid-twenties and quite beautiful. “She’ll do for my son.”

  “I want your daughter Heket for my wife,” Sabu told him.

  “Done,” Khab replied.

  That was a surprise to me. For years Sabu had lusted after Satiah, Antef’s sister. Sabu’s strategy with these two marriages was crystal clear – eventually place on Nekhen’s throne either a child he planted in Heket or Nebetah produced for Kama. Sabu was doubling down on Nekhen. He wanted direct control of the entire South. I remembered Heket from the coronation at Nekhen. She hadn’t impressed me. She was the type of woman Sabu deserved – haughty, self-important, obsessed with luxury and status.

  “Matia. Come,” Sabu ordered.

  As if I was a dog. A purposeful humiliation. I moved beside Sabu. It was my turn.

  “Antef, your father, King Ny-Hor, can have my sister.”

  I recalled seeing the king during Khab’s coronation at Nekhen. A disgusting old man then, even older now.

  “Father’s not long for this world,” Antef said. He eyed me lasciviously. “I want Matia for myself once he’s dead.”

  “Agreed.”

  I’d been pledged to Antef by Sabu in his original conspiracy at Nekhen despite being pledged at the time to Baki. That after Antef had chosen me over Nebetah. Since then I’d been pledged to Iry of Tjeni and married to Pentu of Nubt. I’d come full circle. A circle I’d never wanted to travel.

  Abedu caught my eye. He looked very disappointed. Being given a king’s daughter had been an unrealistic expectation for a barbarian to have. But he’d had it.

  “The many daughters of my elites Ani and Maya will be assigned to those of you who are minor rulers,” Sabu continued. “Your daughters will be assigned to their sons. Thus will our settlements be linked together for all time.”

  Enthusiastic cries of agreement rang through the hall. Sabu was casting his net wide.

  “Nebetah, you’ll return to Nekhen with King Khab when this council ends. Matia, you’ll go north with Antef,” Sabu ordered.

  “I’ll send Heket to you as soon as I’m home, Majesty,” Khab promised.

  “Can you count on your elites to support this war, Sabu?” Antef queried.

  “My loyalists hold every key position in Nubt. Most are from my mother’s family. Wives and children will suffer if anyone betrays me. Everyone knows that.”

  “When will we attack Scorpion and his settlements?” Abedu asked.

  “After this year’s harvest,” Sabu replied. “When the inundation idles my farmers I’ll press them all into service to fight our great enemy. As I expect the rest of you to do.”

  “Agreed,” all murmured.

  Sabu clapped his hands sharply.

  Girls entered the hall, each holding a copper adze high over her head with both hands. Each halted directly in front of a ruler, facing him.

  “To commemorate this alliance I present each of you with the finest object produced in Nubt’s workshops – a copper adze. There are none like them anywhere in the valley.”

  They were received with appreciation.

  Sabu rose and held his golden cup high in the air. “I call upon Seth, god of Nubt, and Min, god of Gebtu, and Horus, god of Nekhen, and Wadjet, goddess of Pe and Dep, to bring us victory!” he cried.

  Everyone raised his earthenware cup and took up Sabu’s cry.

  Serving girls bearing platters of meat and fruit and bread and vegetables swept into the room. I stationed myself next to Sabu and spent the next hours taking small bites of his food as musicians played and dancing girls performed and rulers generally got drunk. Antef only took his eyes off me long enough to grope serving girls. I was spared that indignity, at least. For now. It was late when the last of the visitors trudged from the hall towards their waiting beds in the per’aa.

  Only Sabu and Ani, commander of the army, and Nofret and I remained, we two women in case Sabu wanted to drink more. Nofret hadn’t been given in marriage today; she was apparently doomed to serve Sabu for the rest of her life, or until he got bored with her. Punishment for being related to Pentu and Baki. Sabu’s new wife, Heket, wouldn’t be the only woman to share his bed.

  “Are you really going to yield the North to Antef once we conquer the valley, Majesty?” Ani queried, sitting in a chair drawn up close to my brother.

  “Of course not.” Sabu snorted. “I intend to unite this entire valley under my rule. Eliminating Scorpion and Tjeni is the first step. As soon as I have Tjeni in hand I’ll turn on Antef. Abedu and I secretly agreed before this council started that he’d attack Antef at my signal in return for eternal grazing rights in the delta. I’m sure King Khab will help us in that fight too. I’ll convince him our ambitions are aligned. Once I have the delta, of course, I’ll turn on him. We may not even have to fight him – just cut him off from goods from the North, as Scorpion has done to us.”

  Consistently deceptive, I thought. Sabu was so dismissive of Nofret and me he didn’t even care that we were in the room listening to his plans. Well, Sabu had just made a deadly mistake. I’d sat idly by and let him get away with murder twice and hadn’t stopped him from taking Nubt’s throne. Locked away in his per’aa these past months I hadn’t been able to do anything about the latter. But once I left Nubt with Antef I’d be out from under Sabu’s thumb. Somehow, somewhere between Nubt and the delta, I was going to escape from Antef. Then I was going to make my way to Tjeni and let Scorpion know everything Sabu and his allies were up to. I wasn’t going to share Ny-Hor’s bed. I wasn’t going to share Antef’s. I was going to help Scorpion remove Sabu from Nubt’s throne. I was going to make sure Sabu died. Unpleasantly.

  ***

  Nubt lay at the apex of a great easterly bulge in the river. Hiw lay at the northern end of the bulge and Inerty the southern. Hiw was beholden to Tjeni, Inerty to Nubt. An overland trail roughly thirty miles long connected them, angling across the bulge, cutting the river distance by more than half. Several trails led west from Nubt to intersect that trail at various points. Because Tjeni controlled a stretch of river where the valley narrowed, it wouldn’t have been possible for Antef or others from the North to travel past that settlement by water undetected on their journey to Nubt. They’d s
ecured their vessels several days travel north of Tjeni, left them under guard, then come overland by donkey on desert trails. The day after the council, mounted on a donkey, I set out with Antef and Abedu and various other rulers from the middle of the valley, and their retainers, heading for their boats and ultimately their homes in the North.

  I was determined to escape before we reached the boats. It wasn’t going to be easy; Antef would be watching me like a hawk. Somehow, I had to lull him to complacency, make him believe escape was the last thing on my mind. He’d likely assume I’d be resentful and sullen that Sabu had given me to his father and eventually him; I suspected I’d throw him off guard if I instead embraced my future role. I’d charmed plenty of men into doing my will over the years; now my life actually depended on it.

  A long arcing line of steep-walled impassible cliffs just west of Nubt blocked direct access to the desert. The cliffs were a natural line of defense against an attack by Scorpion’s army or raids by barbarians. The trail we were following initially led south from Nubt along the river, swinging west after a couple of miles to skirt the terminus of the cliffs, there joining the desert route caravanners used when bringing goods to Nubt from western oases. The caravan route was familiar to me thanks to all the hunts I’d accompanied Father and my brothers on, winding around rocky outcrops and passing through wadis, easy to follow due to fragments of broken water jars that littered the dusty sparsely-vegetated plain. Not long after we turned into it the caravan route dipped into a long twisting easily-defended defile that angled north and west towards a high distant plateau, its face striated. Sabu’s guards were outlined against the sky at several points as we passed through the defile, positioned to warn of and defend against an incursion by Scorpion. Eventually the trail began to ascend towards the plateau to join the major trail that connected Inerty to Hiw.

  Not far south of that intersection, I knew, were outcrops of rock covered with ancient etchings – birds, snakes, a scorpion, a bull’s head. I’d secretly etched an image for Hetshet’s spirit to return to on an outcrop that wasn’t likely to be seen and erased by one of Sabu’s minions. That, at least, was one promise to myself I’d kept. I hoped it was working. I hoped I hadn’t waited too long to create it. I hoped Hetshet’s spirit hadn’t been lost forever.

  “Why did Sabu pick me, Majesty?” Henuttawy asked, moving her donkey beside me.

  She was Bebi’s daughter, a cousin, just turned fifteen. Sabu had given her to Abedu as wife the same day I’d been given to Ny-Hor when he’d parceled out elite daughters to minor rulers. Abedu had just ridden ahead to speak with his men and she’d dropped back next to me.

  “Because Sabu’s cruel, Henuttawy. Because he wanted to make your father suffer for opposing him before he became king.”

  “Didn’t he punish us enough when he took everything we had and made Papa and the rest of us fishers?”

  “At least you’ll be as far away from Sabu as you can possibly be from now on.”

  Henuttawy lowered her voice. “I hate Abedu, Majesty. He’s a barbarian. He looks like one. He acts like one. He smells. How am I supposed to survive as his wife?” She looked around. “How am I supposed to survive in the desert.”

  “I wish I knew, Henuttawy. To tell the truth, I dread sharing Antef’s bed after Ny-Hor dies. I dread sharing Ny-Hor’s too. As I did Baki’s. With luck, after a while Abedu and Antef will get bored with us and take up with other women.”

  “That’s what we have to hope for? That they’ll be unfaithful?”

  I had no better answer for her.

  Sabu had sent an experienced guide with us. Fearing Scorpion might have men watching the main trail, the guide led us off the caravan route before we were halfway to the heights and onto a seldom used hunting trail that wound through a number of wadis. The wadis shielded us from distant spying eyes. I’d attended Father on his hunts since I was old enough to ride and every trail in the vicinity was familiar to me. I was tempted to make a run for it – except that without food and water I wouldn’t get very far. I knew my best chance of escape would be several nights from now, when we were much closer to Tjeni and the river. Until then I was going to have to be patient.

  Abedu summoned Henuttawy to him.

  Antef rode into the vacated space beside me.

  Time to make nice with him, pretend to be happy about leaving Nubt behind. I smiled. “Majesty. Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  He seemed surprised I was cheerful. He wiped sweat from his forehead with his forearm. “Don’t know how you Southerners stand this, Matia. Nothing but dirt and rock and dust and dry wadis as far as the eye can see. Not a speck of green anywhere.”

  “We spend our time along the river, Majesty. Much nicer there.”

  “Call me Antef, Matia. Soon enough there won’t be any formality between us.”

  “Antef. Tell me – what's Pe and Dep like? No desert?”

  “Green, Matia. All the time. Our twin settlements are surrounded on three sides by delta – reeds and papyrus and swamp all the way to the horizon. Father has a fine per’aa – you’ll like your room. It’s cooled by a constant sea breeze – we’re located directly on the Wadjet Wer. There’s a harbor – many boats from the North trade with us. Our kings are buried in a special grove of palm trees. Our goddess is Wadjet, the cobra. There’s a salt tang in the air.”

  “What’s the sea like, Antef?”

  “An immensity of water. Endless. Changing shades of blue, depending on time of day. Great waves crashing rhythmically on shore day and night, over and over, running up the sand, sometimes so loud you can barely think. Lined with long stretches of beach shaded by groves of palm trees.” He directed his donkey around a boulder in our path. He gazed at me. “I can picture you frolicking in the ocean, Matia, your skin golden, water streaming off your hair, catching the light, shining.” He leaned close, smiled. “I can picture us making love on the sand at night beneath swaying palms, our bodies entangled, caressed by a warm breeze.”

  Antef was disgusting. And presumptuous. I smiled, pretending I was thrilled by the prospect.

  “I’m aware your husband was an old man,” Antef said. “I think you’ll find me much more… vigorous. I’m sure I’ll please you.”

  How arrogant and condescending. Pentu had pleased me just fine despite his age. And he’d treated me far better than Antef would. I was going to be Antef’s property, not his valued counselor. I’d heard Pentu’s spies deliver plenty of reports about Antef. He was a cruel vicious man who’d set his father aside and ruled through intimidation and fear. Just like Sabu. But I didn’t dare defend Pentu to Antef, or even let Antef see his assertion was objectionable to me.

  Antef moved even closer, so that our donkeys bumped. “In fact, Matia, we don’t have to wait to find out. We’ll share many nights before we reach the North.”

  I kept my face impassive. So that’s what the rest of this journey was going to be like – me fending off Antef. For weeks. I’d be miserable. Eventually he’d get angry at my resistance. Then what? I had to manage his expectations before they ran away with him and became uncontrollable. I reached out and took his hand in mine. “As much as I’d like that Antef – I really would – I belong to your father right now. If we did what you suggest – well, one look in my eyes when he saw us together and he’d know what we’d done. He’d know how I feel about you.”

  “You think you’d be that obvious?”

  “I’m sure of it, Antef. I can’t help it. Neither can you. Right now your eyes are telling me how you feel about me, even better than your words.”

  “Really?”

  “I’ve known you desired me since the first time Sabu promised me to you, at Nekhen. In fact,” I cooed, “I remember you picking me for your wife over my sister Nebetah.”

  “You do?”

  “Sabu said you could choose between us. He expected you to pick Nebetah because she’s gorgeous. He said so. But I remember exactly what you said. You assured Sabu you have your pick of beautifu
l women in Pe and Dep. You said you wanted more than just beauty. You told Sabu I looked far fiercer than Nebetah.” I stared deep into Antef’s eyes. “You said you prefer women that require taming.”

  “How do you know what I said?” Antef demanded.

  “I was on the heights, searching for an ancient kiln. I was only a few steps from you. I overheard everything the two of you said.”

  Antef mulled that over. “Do you, Matia? Require taming?”

  He was too stupid to figure out that if I’d overheard him making a secret alliance with Sabu that I must have been the one who’d destroyed it. He had something besides alliances on his mind. “I certainly do, Antef. I can’t help it – I’m too wild for my own good sometimes.”

  Antef smiled broadly. “I won’t disappoint you, then.”

  I resisted rolling my eyes. “Anyway, that’s why we can’t take advantage of this time together, Antef. Your father the king is sure to ask me about us. I wouldn’t dare lie – he’s a god, after all. I might be struck dead if I did. He’d punish you and me both if I spoke the truth. No, Antef, as difficult as it’s going to be to wait you’ll have to be patient. Just like me.”

  “Patient! Now I hope more than ever that Father’s dead by the time we get home.”

  We rested that midday near the mouth of a steep-walled rocky wadi not far from the plateau. Traveling in brutal heat wasn’t good for man or beast. I recognized the wadi – I’d been here before. On one of its walls was the most impressive ancient etching I’d ever seen – a Barbary sheep attacked by four dogs. I believed it had been made by hunters in the centuries before this area dried out and changed from savannah to desert. While everyone else ate or napped in a thin strip of shade alongside a wadi wall I walked a little farther into its depths to visit the etching, in places scrambling over piles of boulders on hands and knees, in places plodding through ankle-deep sand left behind by an ancient stream. Accompanied the whole way by a grumbling guard of Antef’s who took no interest in what I was doing and complained constantly about heat and dust and lack of shade and cursed every time he stepped on a sharp stone.