The Oasis (68 page)

Much later she felt him begin to stroke her hair, and at the sweetly familiar touch she herself came close to tears. “All this while I lay helpless,” he said. “Helpless and useless and even now I am unable to sit up for the pain it causes me. Forgive me, my dear one, for leaving you alone to face the army, for causing you to stand against a situation no woman should have to confront.”

“Don’t be foolish,” she chided him. “What choice did you, did any of us, have? I am not just any woman, I am a Tao. So is Mother, by marriage and by her own stubbornness. We did well and we are proud of it. Hor-Aha and Ramose will round up the deserters. It is over, Ahmose. Do not begin to worry or your recovery will be hampered.” She sat up, pushing her tangled hair out of her eyes, but he did not release his hold on her.

“You have heard nothing from either of them,” he said. “We can presume nothing until we do.”

“It is too soon for any dispatches,” Aahmes-nefertari reminded him. “But we are safe for the present. Ankhmahor is still here.”

“I will want to see him, but not today,” he mused. “In a moment I will take more poppy, for my head has begun to pound. Tell me what you think of Mesehti and Makhu. They withdrew their troops and ran. Does it mean that they can still be trusted?”

She answered him in the same vein, aware that in discussing practical matters he was delaying the moment when he must begin to accept his brother’s death. The dam of denial was still firmly in place, holding back the flood of grief, guilt and remorse she knew must eventually come, but for now it was necessary for his sanity that they speak of other things and she was thankful.

From then on his recovery was slow but sure. The physician removed his stitches and his hair began to grow back around the scar that he would carry for the rest of his life. He began to take a little nourishment. But Aahmes-nefertari, who had temporarily abandoned all responsibilities that might take her beyond the confines of his room, would often wake to the sound of his crying in the night and lie rigid on her pallet while he wept out his agony. She had Akhtoy bring the children to him and holding Hent-ta-Hent seemed to comfort him.

Aahotep was a frequent visitor. He had thanked her for saving his life in his own simple, straightforward way but he wished for no more details of that day and Aahotep with her usual sensitivity did not supply them. Tetisheri also came, but there were strained silences between them that often stretched into minutes before one or the other of them offered some trite morsel of polite conversation. “She wishes that I were dead instead of Kamose,” Ahmose remarked to Aahmes-nefertari, “and she is gracious enough to feel guilty because of it. I pity her.” To that, Aahmes-nefertari could make no reply.

Soon he was able to sit for a while beside his couch and then to walk unsteadily about the room. His appetite had returned, and on the morning when he cleared his plate and asked for more Aahmes-nefertari clapped her hands delightedly. “You will soon be out on the river, fishing again,” she said, but his face darkened.

“I do not think that I will either catch or eat fish any more,” he replied sadly. “I could not do so without missing Kamose. Besides, when we lay him in his tomb I will be King, and Kings are forbidden to eat fish. It is an offence against Hapi.”

“I think that while you are still only a Prince, the God of the Nile would be pleased that you so loved his domain,” she objected. “And surely Kamose would be saddened if you abandoned something that always brought you so much joy.” But he shook his head and did not respond.

At last he was strong enough to be dressed and venture out into the garden, followed by an excited crowd of servants bearing cushions, a sunshade, fly whisk, pastries and his sandal box. He stood outside the main entrance for a while, blinking in the bright sunlight, then he moved slowly over the grass towards the pond. Crossing the path to the watersteps, he paused and glanced down. “This is where I cradled him, and this is where he died,” he said quietly. “I have remembered, Aahmes-nefertari. Remembered all of it. May I never forget.” Then he lifted his face to the sky, inhaled the perfume from the banks of spring flowers in bloom, and continued on.

They had only been settled a short time by the pool when Aahotep came hurrying towards them, two scrolls in her hand. “Messages from Hor-Aha and Ramose!” she exclaimed. “It is over, all of it! The rebellion is utterly finished. Hor-Aha tells us that although he was forced to execute the officers who betrayed us a second time, he is bringing the soldiers back. There is no fight left in them. Ramose, Mesehti and Makhu will arrive together and together they have been hunting the remnants of the deserters from Intef and Iasen’s nomes. Will you pardon their cowardice, Ahmose?” He held out a hand on which his rings once again glinted.

“That depends on how they seem when they stand before me,” he replied. “We have learned a hard lesson, Aahotep. Perhaps it is time for reorganization and I think I will begin with the army. I intend to march north as soon as the period of mourning is over, but I will not make the mistakes that drove Kamose to his ruin.”

His glance strayed to the pond where a naked Ahmoseonkh sat on the verge kicking up sheets of spray and gurgling with laughter. “It is now the middle of Mekhir. The fields are being sown and I have seeds of my own to strew all over the Delta.” He looked speculatively from his mother to his wife. “I have no qualms in leaving Weset to my two warriors,” he smiled. “And I swear to both of you that in return for what you have done I will lay a united Egypt at your feet. Give the scrolls to Ipi, Mother, and come in under the sunshade. Today we will talk of nothing but the dragonflies hunting the mosquitoes and the sun on the water.”

Aahmes-nefertari found herself studying him curiously. He was the same and yet not the same, her beloved husband, still mild and deliberate in his words and gestures, but the air of vague simplicity that had caused so many to misread him had gone. He has been transmuted like the rest of us, she thought rather sadly. He was struck down a Prince, and he has risen up a King.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Aldred, Cyril.
Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewelry of the Dynastic Period
. rev. ed. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. 1978.

Aldred, Cyril.
The Egyptians
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Baikie, James.
A History of Egypt: From the Earliest Times to the End of the XVIII Dynasty
. Vol 1 and 2. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1971.

Baines, John, and Jaromir Malek.
Atlas of Ancient Egypt
. New York: Facts on File, 1987.

Bietak, Manfred.
Avaris, the Capital of the Hyksos: Recent Excavations at Tell el-Daba
. London: British Museum Press, 1996.

Breasted, James H.
A History of Egypt: From the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest
. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905.

Breasted, James H.
Ancient Records of Egypt
. Vol. 2 and 4. London: Histories & Mysteries of Man Ltd., 1988.

Bryan, Cyril P.
Ancient Egyptian Medicine: The Papyrus Ebers
. Chicago: Ares Publishers Inc., 1930.

Budge, Wallace E.A.
A History of Egypt: from the End of the Neolithic Period to the Death of Cleopatra vii. B.C. 30. Vol. 3, Egypt under the Amenemhats and Hyksos
. Oosterhout: Anthropological Publications, 1968.

Budge, Wallace E.A.
An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary
. Vol 1 and 2. rev. ed. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1978.

Budge, Wallace E.A.
Egyptian Magic
. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.

Budge, Wallace E.A.
Legends of the Egyptian Gods: Hieroglyphic Texts and Translations
. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994.

Budge, Wallace E.A.
The Mummy: A Handbook of Egyptian Funerary Archaeology
. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1989.

Cottrell, Leonard.
The Warrior Pharaohs
. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969.

David, Rosalie.
Mysteries of the Mummies: The Story of the Manchester University Investigation
. London: Book Club Associates, 1979.

Davidovits, Joseph, and Margie Morris. T
he Pyramids: an Enigma Solved
. New York: Dorset Press, 1988.

Gardiner, Sir Alan.
Egypt of the Pharaohs
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.

James, T.G.H.
Excavating in Egypt: The Egypt Exploration Society 1882–1982
. London: British Museum Publications Limited, 1982.

Mertz, Barbara.
Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt
. rev. ed. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1990.

Murnane, William J.
Guide to Ancient Egypt
. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.

Murray, Margaret A.
Egyptian Religious Poetry
. Westport: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1980.

Murray, Margaret A.
The Splendour that was Egypt
. rev. ed. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972.

Nagel’s Encyclopedia-Guide.
Egypt
. Geneva: Nagel Publishers, 1985.

Newberry, Percy Edward.
Ancient Egyptian Scarabs: An Introduction to Egyptian Seals and Signet Rings
. Chicago: Ares, 1979.

Newby, Percy Howard.
Warrior Pharaohs: The Rise and Fall of the Egyptian Empire
. London, Boston: Faber and Faber, 1980.

Porter, Bertha, and Rosalind L.B. Moss. T
opographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. Vol. VII, Nubia, The Deserts and Outside Egypt
. Oxford: Griffith Institute Ashmolean Museum, 1995.

Richardson, Dan.
Egypt: The Rough Guide
. London: Penguin Books, 1996.

Shaw, Ian, and Paul Nicholson. T
he Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
. London: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995.

Spalinger, Anthony J.
Aspects of the Military Documents of the Ancient Egyptians
. London: Yale University Press, 1982.

Watson, Philip J.
Costumes of Ancient Egypt
. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

Wilson, Ian.
The Exodus Enigma
. London: Guild Publishing, 1986.

University Museum Handbooks.
The Egyptian Mummy Secrets and Science
. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 1980.

ATLASES

Oxford Bible Atlas
. 2nd ed. London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

The Harper Atlas of the Bible
. Edited by James A. Pritchard. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1987.

The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East and North Africa
. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

JOURNALS

K.M.T. a Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt
. San Francisco.

Volume 5, number 1,
Hyksos Symposium at the Metropolitan Museum
.

Volume 5, number 2,
Amunhotep I, Last King of the 17th Dynasty
?

Volume 5, number 3,
Decline of the Royal Pyramid
.

Volume 6, number 2,
Buhen: Blueprint of an Egyptian Fortress.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

HEARTFELT THANKS
to my researcher, Bernard Ramanauskas, without whose organizational skill and meticulous attention to detail these books could not have been written.