The Plot on the Pyramid (2 page)
“Poor pyramid,” Nephoris said. “King Amenemhat is our god, you know. He makes the river flood the fields and makes the corn grow. That’s why we are building Amenemhat a huge pyramid. Build Amenemhat another pyramid,” she said.
As Pere piled up the mud, a ripple from the river washed it away. The river was rising fast now. Amenemhat was doing his magic.
Pere frowned at the river and his ruined pyramid. “Naughty!” he said and slapped the water. It splashed up and soaked his angry face. Nephoris laughed. Life was good.
Then her mother called her home.
Her shrill voice carried over the quiet fields. “Da-fi-aaaa!”
“Mama!” Pere said and struggled to his feet. He had sharp ears and heard her first. Nephoris quickly washed his muddy legs and hands, scooped him up and ran along the dusty path towards their small mud house.
At the Pyramid of Lisht their father, Yenini was getting more and more angry …
Yenini’s face was red. Red with the heat of the midday sun. Red with the strain of pulling a pyramid block almost to the top of Amenemhat’s pyramid. But, most of all, red with rage. Rage at the fat little bully, Antef.
Thirty men from Lisht made up a team of workers – the Boat Gang, they called themselves. They were proud of being the best of the hundred gangs that worked on the pyramid.
But the Pharaoh had put Antef in charge – Antef with his perfumed wig and beard-wig, pot belly and wicked tongue.
The Boat Gang were free men. They worked for the love of King Amenemhat. Antef treated them like slaves – like the prisoners of war who were forced to work and beaten.
The day had started badly. Their massive stone, big as a house, had slipped off the barge that carried it over the Nile. They had to fasten ropes around it and drag it through the mud and onto the shore.
Yenini was a little worried that they would not get it up the pyramid before sunset. He didn’t like the Boat Gang to fail. They never had before.
Then they heaved it onto a wooden sledge and the sledge cracked. It was an old one and Antef should have got them a better one.
Yenini was a bit upset by that.
The cracked sledge was harder to pull and it took them most of the morning to get it to the foot of the pyramid. Yenini was getting hungry. He had a lunch bag at his belt. When the sun passed the peak of the pyramid they could take a rest and eat in the shadowed side of the tomb.
But the sledge stuck on the ramp that led to the top.
Yenini was annoyed.
“Come on, Boat Gang,” he cried. “Put your backs into it. There’s a neat little hole at the top just waiting for this stone. And there’s an even bigger hole in my stomach waiting for my dinner!”
The men laughed and tried harder. They sweated and strained and the huge stone moved upwards.
That was when Antef really upset them. He walked behind them and watched them.
“Laughing are you? Laughing. You are the biggest bunch of brainless beetles on this pyramid and all you can do is laugh. You can’t move one little stone and you think it’s funny?” he jeered and cracked his leather whip. It snapped in the air close to Yenini’s nose.
“Hang on, Antef,” Yenini said. “It’s your fault that we have this cracked old sledge. It’s your job to see we get the best.” He was getting angry.