by Wilbur Smith
I am not an avaricious man. But you must remember that very recently I had been deprived by Pharaoh Utteric Turo of every cubit of land and every deben of silver that I had ever owned. When you possess a lakh of silver you hardly ever think about it. When the amount is reduced to a single deben you can hardly ever think of anything else.
‘I thought I should never again look upon such a glorious sight.’ I spoke aloud to no one in particular as I squinted my eyes against the reflection of the torch flames off the blocks of closely packed precious metals, both silver and gold. Then I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the palm of my hand and turned back to King Hurotas. I went to him and knelt at his feet. ‘Thank you, Your Majesty,’ I whispered, and bowed forward to kiss his feet. But he was too quick for me and with a hand on each of my shoulders he lifted me up; and he gazed into my eyes.
‘What is a single kindness when weighed against the hundreds you have shown me and Tehuti?’ he asked.
It took me, with a dozen slaves to assist me, the next three days to unpack, weigh and then repack this plethora of riches. Tehuti made a rapid calculation that this should be sufficient to sustain me in opulence for unnumbered years.
‘Always provided you can live that long,’ she qualified her estimate.
‘That offers no real challenge,’ I assured her, ‘but it’s the second five hundred years that gives me pause.’
Hui’s four sons formed a close family alliance. However, by reason of her superior age, beauty, enchanting personality and the special favour of her father the king, Serrena was the undisputed leader of the pack. She could dance like a whirlwind, and ride like a fury. She could play every musical instrument known to mankind, and sing like the sirens that lure seamen on to the rocks with the sweet sound of their voices. But her voice was joyful and not doom-laden.
She could riddle and rhyme, and make others laugh with just a smile or one kind word.
Rich and powerful men came from all the ends of the earth to seek her hand in marriage but she turned them away so gracefully and sweetly that not a single heart was broken, and they departed as happily as if she had done them the greatest favour.
Like her mother she was a formidable archer and an exponent of all the edged weapons. She was the only one who was permitted by Tehuti to handle the blue sword with the ruby pommel. This was an almost mythical weapon, with a highly convoluted provenance. I had first seen it many years before when it belonged to Lord Tanus, who had been the faithful but clandestine lover of Queen Lostris for most of her life. On his deathbed he bequeathed the sword to Prince Memnon, who was Lostris’ son. He was also the son of Tanus, although I was the only person who was aware of this fact apart from both the parents. When Lostris passed away Memnon succeeded her to the throne of Pharaoh, and became Pharaoh Tamose in his turn. He was the elder brother of my darlings Tehuti and Bekatha, and thus the grandfather of Serrena herself.
It was Tamose who, with some assistance from me, negotiated the marriage of his two sisters to the mighty Minos of Crete. As a wedding gift Pharaoh gave the blue sword with the ruby pommel to his elder sister Tehuti. When the Minos and his island kingdom were almost totally destroyed in that massive volcanic eruption, the two widowed sisters eloped with their lovers Hui and Zaras and sailed away into the north to build a kingdom of their own here in Lacedaemon. Of course I assisted the two sisters to elope with their lovers, rather than return to Egypt. And of course the fabulous sword went with Tehuti.
As a passionately dedicated swordswoman, Tehuti was enchanted by the blue sword. There was no other blade like it in existence and in her hands it became the ultimate weapon. It was probably the only gift that might have compensated her for her exile to Crete.
Tehuti allowed no one else to touch the enchanted blue blade, not even King Hurotas her husband. Tehuti alone washed her enemy’s clotted blood from the gleaming cerulean metal. Tehuti was the only one who polished and honed the cutting edges of the weapon to deadly perfection, becoming an expert metalworker in the process.
However, this day on the bank of the Hurotas River was one of rare magic. It was the day that Princess Serrena turned fourteen years of age; the day she was transformed from a girl into a woman. No gift was too extravagant for her to receive.
Of course I was not with them in person on that day. Tehuti related the following incident to me only after I arrived with Rameses in Lacedaemon, by which time Serrena had reached the age of twenty years.
As was their custom and pleasure the two of them, mother and daughter, had ridden to their secret pool in the Hurotas River upstream from the citadel. They handed over their mounts to the grooms before they reached it and ran holding hands the last hundred cubits to the royal lodge built on the river-bank below the waterfall. The grooms and servants knew better than to follow them. They would wait with the horses until the two royal women returned.
Tehuti wore the blue sword on her hip, but that was unremarkable, for she wore it more often than not. Their servants and slaves had visited the lodge earlier in the morning and cleaned it immaculately. They had placed fresh flowers in the enormous copper vases, so that the main room overlooking the pool was transformed into a garden of delight. They had covered the couches with tanned elk skins and silken pillows. They had lit the fire on the hearth in the centre of the floor, for winter was still lingering. Then they laid out a sumptuous meal that would have fed ten hungry men; knowing full well that what was left over would be passed on to them.
Tehuti and Serrena began stripping off their clothing almost as soon as they entered this sanctuary. Tehuti unbuckled the blue sword from around her waist, and laid it reverently on the table in the centre of the room facing the fireplace. They tossed the rest of their clothing on to the elk-skin-covered cushions. Then, stark naked and holding hands once again, they left the lodge and ran down to the river-bank. They plunged into the limpid waters, kicking up a cloud of flying spray. They squealed at the shock of the cold, for there were great lumps of ice washed down from the mountains floating on the surface of the river. They splashed each other with handfuls of river water until Tehuti broke away and tried to escape further punishment. Serrena chased her mother and when she caught her she dragged her under the tumbling water of the falls, and held her there until she pleaded for mercy. Strong as she was Tehuti had to exert herself to the utmost to match her daughter. It seemed that Serrena’s body was carved not from human flesh and bone, but from some divine substance as adamantine as the blue metal of the fabulous sword.
But neither of these two magnificent women were proof to the cold of mountain ice melt. When they waded to the bank, waist-deep and locked in each other’s arms, they were shivering as uncontrollably as victims of the ague. Their buttocks and bellies were glowing bright pink with the cold. In the lodge they threw logs of wood on the dying coals in the hearth and when these burst into flames they stood almost close enough to scald themselves, scrubbing each other with the dry towels the servants had laid out for them.
When they had warmed sufficiently to control their shivering Tehuti placed a large jug of red wine on the coals and as it began to bubble she threw a double handful of dried herbs into the brew and stirred it vigorously. When they were warm and dry, they donned their clothing and reclined side by side on the couch in front of the fire. They passed the steaming jug back and forth between them, delighting in the comfort of the mulled wine and each other’s company.
Tehuti had placed the blue sword still in its jewelled scabbard across her lap. She leaned closer to her daughter, and with her free arm hugged her around the shoulders. Serrena reciprocated by kissing her mother’s cheek, and whispering to her, ‘Thank you for this wondrous day, my beloved mother. You make me the happiest girl in the world.’
‘You are no longer a girl, my darling. You are a woman grown so lovely as to surpass the telling of it. But your birthday has not yet passed. I have one more gift for you.’
‘You have already given me far more than enough …’ Serrena
started and then broke off and stared at her mother speechlessly. Tehuti had lifted the blue sword from her own lap and laid it across her daughter’s. Then she took Serrena’s hand and folded her fingers around the jewelled hilt.
‘This is my gift to you, Serrena,’ she said. ‘Use it only wisely and with care, but when you must do not hesitate but strike to the heart of your enemy.’
‘It is too much.’ Serrena placed both her hands behind her back and shook her head, staring down at the weapon lying in her lap. ‘I know how much it means to you. I cannot accept it.’
‘But I have given it to you with my love, so I cannot take one back without taking back the other also,’ Tehuti told her.
Serrena tore her eyes away from the sword and stared at her mother’s face as she grappled with this conundrum. It was a play on words and something that both of them enjoyed; then she beamed as the solution came to her. ‘The blue sword is a part of you, is it not?’ she demanded, and Tehuti nodded grudgingly.
‘Yes, I suppose it is.’ She accepted the point.
‘But I am also part of you, and you are part of me, are we not?’
Tehuti saw in which direction she was headed, and her solemn expression gave way to a delighted smile.
‘Then it follows that all three of us are a single entity, the sword is part of both of us, and thus all three of us belong to each other.’ As Serrena closed her fingers around the hilt of the sword again and drew the blade from its bejewelled scabbard, she added simply, ‘It is the greatest honour for me to share this magnificent weapon with you, my darling mother.’
Then she came to her feet, and held the blade aloft like a burning torch. It seemed to light the whole room with its blue reflected flame. She began the exercise of arms that Tehuti had drilled into her ever since she was old enough and strong enough to lift a toy weapon. She began with the twelve parries, and then the cuts and lunges all rendered in unhurried perfection.
Tehuti applauded her, keeping the time with her hands clapping as gradually Serrena increased the tempo until the blade seemed to dissolve into a glittering and ethereal gleam of light, like a hummingbird’s wing when it hovers before a bloom. Her arm became part of the same wing, changing shape in constant mutability. Her entire body danced to the rhythm set by the gleaming blade. Then she began to whirl and her feet moved with the speed of flickering summer lightning. With every revolution she pruned the tallest bloom in one of the copper flower vases, snipping it off so neatly that it seemed not to realize it had been detached, but hovered for a second before it fell to the floor; by which time Serrena had cut loose three or four more blossoms. They fell as thick as snowflakes in a winter storm until every stalk was left denuded, and Serrena stopped dancing as abruptly as she had begun with the blue blade held aloft like a torch once more.
It was such a wonderful exhibition of swordsmanship that Tehuti would remember it always. It was she who described it to me when I remarked on the blue sword hanging from Serrena’s belt.
If these were happy days for me, then for Rameses and Serrena they were paradisiacal. I have heard it said that there is no such thing as love at first sight, but this couple gave the lie to such nonsense.
They made no attempt to conceal their mutual fascination and attraction. They touched each other at every opportunity, and hung on each other’s lips when one of them was speaking, or just sat silent gazing deeply into each other’s eyes for minutes at a time.
Tehuti’s first delight at their evident mutual attraction soon turned into alarm. She extracted a solemn oath of chastity from her daughter, and then complained to me, ‘She doesn’t mean a word of it. She is as hot as a young filly coming into her first season. I can smell it on her as soon as she sees him. You have to help me, Tata.’
I feigned innocence. ‘Do you mean the same way I helped you guard your virginity against Zaras’ forays?’
She recoiled and then flared at me, ‘I feel very sorry for you. You have got such a dirty mind.’
‘When?’ I asked. ‘Then when it was you and Zaras, or now when it’s Rameses and Serrena?’ And she threw her hands up in frustration and then collapsed with laughter.
‘There is a big difference,’ she explained to me seriously as soon as she had recovered her poise. ‘Zaras and I were never given a chance by my brother, the Pharaoh. I was being given away to a horrible old man in a political arrangement. I wanted just once in my life to be with the man I loved. Now with Serrena and Rameses they have everybody’s whole-hearted approval. We just want them to be a little patient.’
‘I think that you and your daughter may have different estimates of how much is a little patience. But I will do my best to keep Rameses on a short leash for you.’
It was not an idle promise I made to Tehuti. I knew as well as she did just how impetuous and irresistible the passions of young love are. King Hurotas and Tehuti were both strongly in favour of the union of Rameses and Serrena, but it was also a matter of high state. To their minds it was essential that the rulers of all the numerous kingdoms which surrounded Lacedaemon, both near and far, should be present at the wedding. King Hurotas and Queen Sparta Tehuti were determined to make the utmost political capital out of the union.
They estimated that it would take almost a year to send the wedding invitations to all the potential political allies whose favour they were cementing, and then to juggle the near impossible task of assembling all of them in the citadel of Lacedaemon simultaneously.
‘A year!’ Rameses protested in an agony of impatience. ‘I could grow old and die in that time.’ But to my astonishment Serrena was much more sensible and practical.
‘If you love me as much as you say you do,’ she told Rameses in my presence and that of her own parents, ‘then you will agree to what my father and mother ask of us. As the heirs to the throne of this marvellous country which I love we have a duty to our nation that takes precedence over our own petty desires. Besides which, our love can only grow stronger with time and sacrifice.’ She won him over almost immediately with that simple but formidable logic.
Up until this time I looked upon her simply as a beautiful young woman, but from that day on I began to realize what an extraordinary person she truly was. Her talents and strengths were concealed from most of us by the superficial screen of her beauty. But if you could look beyond that façade, as I was able to do, you discovered an intelligence and a steely core that was uncanny.
Although they spent a great deal of their time together so that their mutual feelings were obvious to all the world, Serrena took care not to hide from view so that prurient minds would have nothing to feast upon. In fact both of the lovers seem to be strongly drawn to the company of other men and women of exceptional minds and Serrena in particular enjoyed erudite discussion. She would seek me out nearly every day for at least a few hours of discussion on matters varying as widely as the shape of our world or what moved the tides of the ocean and the nature of the substances that made up the moon and the sun.
I looked forward eagerly to our arguments and discussions and within a very few months of our first meeting I realized that I loved Serrena as much if not more than I did her mother Tehuti. No matter that she stubbornly resisted my carefully reasoned logic and would not concede that the earth was flat, that the tides were the consequence of the insatiable thirst of Poseidon, the god of the sea, drinking deeply twice a day from the ocean. Nor that the moon and the sun are one and the same heavenly body, which is composed of a flammable substance that consumes itself in flame during the course of the day and then regenerates itself during the night. She had her own theories which were so risible as hardly to bear repetition. I mean, if the world were truly round as a pumpkin, as she mooted, how would people be able to cling to the underside without falling off?
Over the next few months the realization gradually dawned upon me that Serrena was not the child of two ordinary human beings, but that one of her parents at least must be a divine. Such beauty and intelligence were of a h
igher plane. I know because I also am similarly afflicted, or blessed. I know not how best to describe it.
I have the highest possible regard for King Hurotas, the putative sire of Serrena. He is a resourceful and courageous soldier, and a dear and loyal friend. He is even a fine king, the best I have ever met after Pharaoh Tamose, but nobody in their right mind would mistake him for a god.
However, there could be no possible doubt which of them had carried Serrena in her womb, for only one of them was suitably equipped for that task. So it seemed to me obvious that Tehuti must have strayed more than a little from the narrow path of fidelity.
However, just to make assurance doubly sure I was determined to put Serrena’s provenance to the test, not because I am a busybody as some people tend to think, but because of my genuinely deep affection for all those involved.
There are a number of infallible tests of divinity, one of which is the ability to understand and speak the arcane language of the Adepts and the Magi, passed on to us by the god Hermes, or Mercury as he is also known. Hermes is the son of Thundering Zeus, who gave his favourite son many roles to play in the history and evolution of mankind. Among the most important are those of generating speech, language, learning and eloquence. On the other hand Zeus also made Hermes the god of mendacity, and the author of crafty and devious words. As a part of these multiple duties Hermes created the language of the divines, which he designated the Tenmass.
I did not have to wait too long. Most evenings the female members of the royal family, Tehuti, Bekatha and Serrena, went out on the horses for a long ride, either along the river-bank, up into the Taygetus Mountains or along the golden sands of the beach that ran along the northern side of the island. Of course Rameses and I were invited to join them. Like me Serrena was fascinated by the sea creatures that abounded in the waters that surrounded us, and the birds and wild animals that inhabit the mountains and forests. She collected the eggs of the birds that nested in the mountains and forests and the shells of the various molluscs that were washed up on the shore. She made up her own fantastical names for each species, and was overjoyed whenever she discovered something new or previously unknown to her. Rameses, like most soldiers and men of action, was not much interested in these natural subjects, but wherever Serrena led him he followed dutifully.