Wrath of Ra

by Carole Wilkinson

  Ramose’s smile faded. “So, you’re not coming to Thebes? I thought Vizier Wersu offered you a position as assistant to the assistant of the foreign minister.”

  “He did. I turned it down. I have spent enough time serving Egypt.”

  Ramose smiled sadly. Karoya deserved her freedom.

  “Will you return to Kush?” he finally asked.

  Karoya nodded.

  “I don’t suppose I will see you again, then.”

  “Who knows what the gods have in store for us?”

  Ramose wasn’t prepared to even guess.

  “We have to let Hapu know I got to shore safely.”

  Karoya nodded. “I’ll do that.”

  Ramose was about to object.

  “You’ve got this far, you don’t want to risk getting caught now. You stay here and rest.” She wrapped her head-cloth around her head and silently crept out of the room.

  Ramose lay back on the stone slab. He pictured the dedication ceremony. The boat would reach the shore and be securely tied up. The high priest would lead the procession into the temple as the statue was carried through the hall. The rest of the party would follow behind with their heads bowed. At the door of the inner shrine, the ministers, the vizier and the princesses would have to stop. Only Pharaoh and the priests would accompany Ra to his final home. Hapu would be back at the boat with the other rowers, anxiously waiting for a signal from Karoya that Ramose was safe. It hadn’t been such a bad plan after all.

  Karoya returned after a few minutes. “All is well,” she said. “I saw Hapu.”

  “Good,” said Ramose. “How is my brother?”

  “He is very distressed. He thinks he has lost you again.”

  “I wish I could let him know I’m okay,” Ramose said sadly. This was the only part of the plan he didn’t like. “What about Princess Tiya?”

  “Oh, she seemed upset, but when the vizier told her that she could still have a pet monkey, she soon cheered up.”

  Ramose smiled. “I hope that Tiya stays at the palace. She’s a good companion for Pegget.”

  The two friends sat together through the hours of the night. When the oil lamp flickered out, they each picked up their reed bags and silently made their way out of the temple. The sounds of the exhausted priests, still chanting prayers to Ra, drifted through the corridors with the scent of incense. Ramose and Karoya slipped past the sleeping guard and out onto the steps. The first light was only just starting to bleach the darkness on the horizon. The royal party had long gone. The only remains of the ceremony were a few lotus petals lying on the steps.

  Ramose and Karoya made their way up the craggy slope behind the temple. Suddenly Karoya pulled Ramose to the ground.

  “There’s someone down by the river.”

  In the dim light, Ramose could make out the figure of a young woman standing at the river’s edge.

  “It’s Hatshepsut,” he whispered.

  His sister was standing alone, barefoot, wearing a simple linen shift that came only to her knees. She wore no jewellery, no crown. A breeze lifted her hair from her shoulders. She could have been any Egyptian girl. She knelt and picked up a handful of lotus petals and then threw them into the river.

  “That’s for you,” whispered Karoya.

  Ramose nodded. “She’s chosen a lonely path,” he said. “No one will dare to get close to her.”

  Crouched on the hillside, he watched his sister return to the fort. “Let’s go,” he said.

  They climbed for half an hour. When they reached the top of the hill, they turned and saw the rim of the sun break over the horizon. The sky turned orange, the colour of the fruit that Ramose had eaten in foreign lands. The rays of sunlight lit the seated pharaohs.

  “Ra has survived another journey through the underworld.”

  “So have you, Ramose,” replied Karoya.

  “This is where we must part.”

  Karoya shook her head. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to Kush.”

  Ramose looked at her, puzzled.

  “Hapu and I decided that you’ll starve if you don’t have someone to bake bread for you. I’m coming with you to Thebes.”

  Ramose felt as if an enormous burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

  “Hapu has arranged with the vizier that once he has finished his service in Libya, he will become palace guard. So he can become your eyes and ears in the palace.”

  “But I thought you weren’t willing to serve Egypt any longer?”

  “Who said anything about serving? Someone with such terrible handwriting as you will make a miserable living as a scribe. We will work as scribes together.”

  She handed him the bag containing his scribal tools and the gold and copper. “Here. You carry this.”

  Ramose smiled at Karoya. He lifted the bag onto his shoulder and they walked together towards Thebes.

  A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

  Everybody seems to have trouble pronouncing Ramose’s sister’s name. It’s actually very easy—Hat-shep-sut (I sometimes wish I’d spelt it with hyphens in the book to save all the confusion!). Like Prince Ramose, Hatshepsut was a real person. Whereas history has recorded almost nothing about Ramose, it has told us a lot about Hatshepsut. In ancient Egypt only men could become Pharaoh. Hatshepsut decided to change that. She wanted to be Pharaoh. It didn’t happen overnight. She spent many years as queen to Pharaoh Tuthmosis II and co-regent to Tuthmosis III before she became Pharaoh.

  Some readers have told me they didn’t like the way that I made Hatshepsut turn out to be a bad person. I felt that to be so determined to become Pharaoh, so hungry for power, she must have been very strong-willed and ruthless.

  This is the fourth and final book in the Ramose series. That doesn’t mean I won’t still think about what happens to Ramose next. In a way a story never really ends. Now it’s your turn to imagine what happened to Ramose in the rest of his life.

  GLOSSARY

  acacia

  A type of small tree that grows in dry areas.

  akhet

  The ancient Egyptians divided the year into three seasons. Akhet was the first season of the year, when the Nile flooded.

  Amun

  The king of the Egyptian gods during the New Kingdom period.

  barbarian

  A person who belongs to a group of people that is considered to be primitive or uncivilised.

  besieged

  When a town or castle or fort is surrounded by enemy troops.

  carnelian

  An orangey-red stone used in jewellery.

  cataract

  A place where a river falls to a lower level in a waterfall or rapids.

  cubit

  The cubit was the main measurement of distance in ancient Egypt. It was the average length of a man’s arm from his elbow to the tips of his fingers, 52.4 cm.

  ebony

  Wood from a particular tree. It is a hardwood that is black and used for making furniture.

  frankincense

  A type of incense that is made from gum from a special type of tree that grows in Asia and Africa.

  Great Place

  The name ancient Egyptians gave to the valley near Thebes where pharaohs were buried. Today we call it the Valley of the Kings.

  Horus

  The Egyptian god of the sky.

  jackal

  A type of wild dog that lives in Africa and Asia.

  lapis lazuli

  A dark-blue semi-precious stone which the Egyptians considered to be more valuable than any other stone because it was the same colour as the heavens.

  papyrus

  A plant with tall, triangular-shaped stems that grows in marshy ground. Ancient Egyptians made a kind of paper from the dried stems of this plant.

  prow

  The front part of a boat or ship.

  quay

  A place where ships can tie up and unload their passengers or cargo.

  scribe

  A person who makes a living by writ
ing. Scribes wrote things for people who could not write. Before printing was invented they copied documents.

  tamarisk

  A type of tree with feathery pink or white flowers.

  turquoise

  A greenish-blue precious stone.

  vizier

  A very important person in ancient Egypt. He was the pharaoh’s chief minister who helped with the government of Egypt.

  First published in 2002

  by

  an imprint of Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd

  Locked Bag 22, Newtown

  NSW 2042 Australia

  www.walkerbooks.com.au

  This ebook edition published in 2014

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  Text © 2002 Carole Wilkinson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

  Wilkinson, Carole, 1950– author.

  Ramose: Wrath of Ra / Carole Wilkinson.

  Series: Wilkinson, Carole, 1950– Ramose series; bk. 4.

  For primary school age.

  Subjects: Princes – Juvenile fiction.

  Egypt – Juvenile fiction.

  A823.3

  ISBN: 978-1-925081-67-1 (ePub)

  ISBN: 978-1-925081-66-4 (e-PDF)

  ISBN: 978-1-925081-68-8 (.PRC)

  Cover image (Luxor Museum Statue) © GettyImages.com/Hisham Ibrahim

  Cover image (hieroglyphs) © GettyImages.com/Adam Crowley

  Map by Mini Goss

  Other books by Carole Wilkinson

  Ramose: Prince in Exile

  Ramose and the Tomb Robbers

  Ramose: Sting of the Scorpion

  The Dragon Companion

  The Dragonkeeper series

  Dragonkeeper

  Garden of the Purple Dragon

  Dragon Moon

  Dragon Dawn(prequel)

  Blood Brothers

  Shadow Sister

  Young Adult

  Sugar Sugar

  Stagefright

  Picture Book

  The Night We Made the Flag

  True Tales series

  Ned Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter

  The Drum series

  Black Snake

  The Games

  Alexander the Great

  Fromelles: Australia’s Bloodiest Day at War

  The Beat series

  Hatshepsut: The Lost Pharaoh of Egypt

  Find out about Carole’s books on her website

  www.carolewilkinson.com.au