Pharaoh

by Wilbur Smith

  ‘Oh, woman! Are you trying to maim me for life?’

  I shouted with him and I was closer to where the priestess stood so my words overrode his: ‘Oh, woman, you have saved the king’s life!’

  The sixteen kings joined in the adulation. ‘The Princess Serrena has saved the king’s life! All hail to her!’

  The high priestess, who was misnamed Hagne, which means the Pure One, was delighted with this endorsement and I saw her eyes light up, despite the kohl that dulled much of their lustre, as they settled on King Ber Argolid for the first time.

  The goddess Artemis was a virgin and no animal, man or god would ever be allowed to violate her. She and her body were sacrosanct. She would wreak a terrible revenge on any male who even attempted to gain carnal knowledge of her. However, one of the most important duties of the priestesses of Artemis was to act as erogenous surrogates for their beloved goddess. They are sanctioned by her to have sexual congress with any creature on this earth, be it man, woman, human or animal, fish, fowl or beast. All the physical sensations they experienced in this manner were capable of being transmitted in their entirety to Artemis. However, the goddess herself would remain forever pure and unsullied by even the most unnatural conjunctions of diverse flesh, organs or apertures which were visited on her surrogates. It was an arrangement which has always fascinated me. It promises limitless possibilities even for one as physically deprived as myself.

  All fifty of Artemis’ priestesses followed their high priestess into the main hall of the citadel. Their demeanour was gracious and formal, but there was an underlying rapacity in all of them which reminded me of a shoal of tiger fish in the Nile River that has sensed blood in the water. Within the hour all pretence of modesty had been abandoned by our visitors along with most of their clothing. The dancing became little short of copulatory, but I admit that most of them had the forbearance to retire to the surrounding chambers before taking the final steps along the primrose path.

  I was also relieved to see that Bekatha and Tehuti kept their husbands and female offspring well under their eagle eyes for the entire evening. Bekatha was more lenient, however, when it came to her four sons. I overheard an exchange between Serrena and her youngest cousin when he returned from a brief sojourn in one of the outer chambers.

  ‘Where have you been, Palmys, and what have you been doing?’ Serrena demanded of him. ‘I wanted you to dance with me.’

  ‘I was making a sacrifice to Artemis,’ the boy told her smugly.

  ‘I thought you were strictly an Apollo-worshipper?’

  ‘Sometimes it’s a good thing to bet on two chariots in the same race.’

  ‘Will you show me how you make a sacrifice to one of the divines?’ Serrena asked naively.

  ‘I offered to show you once, but you refused. More fool you. So now you will just have to wait until Rameses gets around to teaching you the trick of it.’

  She stared at him for a moment while she pondered his reply, then her green eyes seemed to double in size and their intensity of green as she caught the sense of his allusion. ‘You have always been a dirty little boy, haven’t you Palmys?’ she said sweetly. ‘But now it seems that you are growing up to be an even dirtier old man.’ And she swatted him behind the ear, so unexpectedly and so hard that he howled a protest.

  Not all the associations that evening were so ill fated. King Ber Argolid returned much later from wherever he had been conducting his liaison with the High Priestess Hagne with a louche expression on his face and a lascivious sparkle in his eye. He went directly to his host King Hurotas to announce his betrothal to Hagne, who, it seemed, had very recently resigned from her position of reverend mother of the Order of the Sisters of the Golden Bow.

  ‘Did I misunderstand you when you said that you already had ten lovely wives on your home island of Minoan Rhodes?’ Hurotas could hardly refrain from grinning.

  ‘The correct figure is actually thirteen, my dear Hurotas. But as you are no doubt aware that is the most ill-fated number in our lexicon of numerology, whereas fourteen is extremely propitious.’

  They were married that very afternoon by Hurotas, and it was another excellent cause for further celebration. However, the following day was the thirteenth day before the wedding of Serrena and Rameses, but I thought nothing of that at the time.

  I awoke the next morning with a headache and a sense of the utmost foreboding. I lay upon my mattress and tried to fathom the reason for my sudden change of mood from the previous day. I sent one of my servants to make enquiry of the previous day’s bride and groom, King Ber Argolid and Reverend Mother Hagne, but he returned to inform me that they were still ensconced in their sleeping chamber. However, judging by the squeals of feminine delight and other sounds suggestive of heavy furniture being moved about vigorously or perhaps even being broken into small pieces they were not actually sleeping. In addition all the other wives and offspring, including Princess Serrena, were well and none of them had been struck down by disease or any other misfortune; in fact, as the servant was reporting his findings to me, I heard happy cries and the laughter of young voices coming up through the windows of my rooms from the courtyard below. I went across to the windows and looked down.

  I was mightily relieved to see that Rameses and Princess Serrena were mounted on their favourite steeds and, accompanied by two of Serrena’s handmaidens and a number of Rameses’ armed retainers, they were riding out through the gates of the citadel on some pleasure excursion. I smiled to myself as I realized that my sense of impending doom was probably the result of the two or three additional flagons of excellent red wine that Hurotas had pressed upon me the previous evening – contrary to my better judgement.

  I went down to the river and swam naked in the cold waters, a sovereign cure for the unpleasant after-effects of the fermented grape. Then, with my head and conscience clear I returned to the citadel and went to join Hurotas and Hui in the council chamber, with twelve of their sixteen royal allies. The other four had sent their apologies but they were all indisposed.

  A short while after noon Rameses returned to the citadel alone and came up to join us in our warlike preparations.

  ‘Where is the Princess Serrena?’ was my very first question to him.

  ‘I left her on north beach, at the Blue Pool.’

  I knew it well. ‘You did not leave her alone, I hope?’

  ‘Almost alone.’ He regarded me with an air of long suffering. ‘With only two of her handmaidens and eight of my best warriors. I think she should be safe enough for the next few hours. I felt it was my duty to join your discussion as your plans involve the participation of my ship and my men. You should bear in mind that Serrena isn’t an infant any longer, Taita. She is very well capable of taking care of herself. She promised to return here four hours after noon.’

  ‘Rameses is right.’ Uninvited Hurotas joined our private discussion. ‘She is well protected.’

  Of course Hui had to poke his long nose in where it was not particularly welcome. ‘One of her bodyguards is Palmys, my youngest son. He may be young but he is fierce,’ he boasted.

  I felt my mood turning gloomy again, but the others had dismissed the subject and moved on with their deliberations. When I tried to remain aloof they kept pestering me, and insisting on involving me in their planning. It was difficult to ignore them and despite myself I was gradually drawn into the debate. In fact it was such a challenging discussion that I gradually lost all sense of the passage of time.

  Then eventually two slave girls entered the chamber quietly and began lighting the oil lamps from burning tapers. I was surprised by this, until I glanced out of the windows on to a splendid view of the Taygetus Mountains and saw the sinking sun slipping below the jagged crests.

  ‘In the name of mighty Zeus!’ I blasphemed with surprise as I sprang to my feet. ‘What hour is it?’

  Hui stood up and crossed to the water clock that stood on the table in the far corner. He tapped the counter with his forefinger. ‘This
clock must be wrongly adjusted. It is dripping too fast. It shows eight hours past noon. Surely that is wrong?’

  ‘Look out the window at the sun. That is never wrong,’ I answered, but then I turned to Rameses. ‘What time did you arrange that Serrena and the rest of her party should return?’

  Rameses jumped to his feet with a guilt-stricken expression. ‘I am sure they must already be back in the citadel. They would have returned several hours ago. But Serrena would not want to disturb us. Hurotas left strict instructions …’

  I did not wait to hear any more of his airy suppositions, but I was halfway out of the chamber doors when Hurotas called after me, ‘Come back, Taita. Where do you think you are going?’

  ‘To the main gates. The sentries will know if Serrena has returned or not,’ I shouted over my shoulder. I could hardly recognize my own voice, shrill with panic, ringing in my ears. I have no idea why I was so agitated, but suddenly all my earlier gloomy premonitions were hovering over me on vulture’s wings and the stink of disaster was rank in my nostrils. I ran like a stag pursued by hounds, and I heard the clatter of boots on the stairs as the others chased after me. I burst into the courtyard and was yelling at the guards from a distance of a hundred paces, ‘Has the Princess Serrena yet returned to the citadel?’ I had to repeat myself before one of them understood me.

  ‘Not yet, my Lord Taita,’ he shouted back at me. ‘We have been waiting …’

  I could not bear to listen to more of his piffle. I brushed past him and kept running towards the stables. I remembered that I had left my sword hanging in the council chamber, but I could not go back to retrieve it, not now. I knew with the utmost certainty that something terrible had happened to Serrena. She needed me desperately.

  I slipped the bit between the teeth of my favourite mount, a beautiful chestnut mare that Tehuti had given me. Then, without wasting time saddling her, I swung up on her bare back and drove my heels into her ribs.

  ‘Hi up, Summer!’ I called to her and we flew out of the stable yard and took the road that crossed the pass in the mountains and led down to the north coast. I looked back once and saw the others led by Rameses, Hurotas and Hui far behind me but riding hard in a futile attempt to catch up with me.

  The daylight was starting to fade by the time I reached the narrow path that led down to the beach and the Blue Pool. I was still pushing Summer, when suddenly she shied so wildly from the path that a less accomplished horseman would have been thrown from her back. But I clamped her between my knees and brought her down to a head-tossing halt. I looked back at the object lying in the path that had disturbed my mare. Then with a surge of dismay I realized that it was a human cadaver. I slid down from Summer’s back and led her jibbing and tossing her head to where the body lay face down. It was soaked with gouts of blood. I went down on one knee and gently rolled it on to its back. I recognized it at once.

  It was Palmys: Hui and Bekatha’s boy. He was stark naked. His murderers had sported with him before they cut his throat. They had sliced open his belly and drawn out his entrails. They had hacked off his manly parts and stabbed his eyes, leaving the sockets empty pits. He was no longer a fine-looking young man, and I felt a bitter pang of compassion for his parents.

  When I stood again and looked around me, I saw why they had tortured him once they had subdued him. Palmys had placed a bitterly high price on his own life. There were the bodies of four of his assailants scattered in the undergrowth nearby; those whom he had taken with him on his journey to Anubis in the underworld.

  I cursed them in the most virulent terms, but words cannot succour the dead. My full attention switched to those still living – if there were any. How many assailants had there been? I wondered, for the path had been trampled by many feet. I estimated that there must have been thirty at the least, including those four that Palmys had taken with him.

  But in the forefront of my mind, overshadowing all else, was the image of Serrena. How had they dealt with her? When they stripped off her clothing would any of them have been able to resist her naked beauty? I could almost hear their lascivious clamour as they held her down and waited for their turn to mount her. I felt the tears run down my face, tears of anger, horror and compassion. I scrambled up on to Summer’s back and in wild despair sent her flying down the path towards the Blue Pool.

  There were seven other corpses littered along the path. All of them were male and most of them hideously mutilated. They were those that Rameses had detailed to guard Serrena. I wasted no more time in stopping to examine them. Despite myself I felt a glimmer of hope, for I had found no sign of Serrena or her two handmaidens. Perhaps the intruders were saving the women. Perhaps they knew the value of Serrena at ransom if she had not been ravaged and raped.

  I came out through the forest above the beach and halted again. The daylight was failing swiftly. However, I could see the footprints the intruders had left on the golden beach sands leading down to the edge of the water. But before my eyes the horizon faded into the murk and gloom. I was unable to make out any trace of a strange ship on the darkling sea. My first impulse was to ride down to the water’s edge, but with an effort I restrained myself when I realized that by doing so I might wipe out valuable signs that the marauders had left in the soft sand.

  I dismounted and swiftly tethered Summer by her reins to a sturdy branch at the edge of the forest. Then I followed the tracks in the sand, keeping wide of them so as not to spoil them. Within the first few yards I noticed something that repaid my diligence in full. There was one series of regular drag marks superimposed on the ruck of many other feet. I recognized them almost immediately.

  I had already fixed my mind on the idea that the assailants were a gang of pirates who had come upon Serrena and her companions completely by random chance. But now I realized this was not the case. However, I was distracted at that moment by the sound of hoof-beats and voices shouting my name from the pathway through the forest above the beach. I recognized Rameses’ voice and also that of Hurotas.

  ‘Here!’ I answered them.

  They rode out of the forest into the open. The instant they spotted me they urged their mount towards where I stood, both of them shouting desperate questions at me.

  ‘Serrena! Have you found her?’

  ‘Is she here?’

  ‘No! She is gone; but I think I know where she must be,’ I called back.

  ‘In the name of gentle Artemis!’ Rameses pleaded. ‘Whoever these outlaws are, they have murdered Palmys and all our men. We left Hui with the body of his son. He is totally destroyed by the loss. I beg of you, don’t let them have done the same thing to my Serrena.’

  Riding at Rameses’ left hand Hurotas was working himself into an ungovernable rage, bellowing savage oaths and threats. ‘I will find whoever it is that has done this monstrous thing if it takes me the rest of my life,’ he roared. ‘And when I catch them I will give them such a death as will astound the very gods.’

  They reined their mounts in alongside me. ‘Who was it, Taita? You know everything.’ Rameses swung down from his horse’s saddle and seized me by my shoulders. He began shaking me wildly.

  ‘Unhand me, and calm yourself!’ I shouted back at him, and with an effort managed to free myself. ‘There! Look for yourself!’ I pointed out the tracks in the sand.

  ‘I don’t understand …’ Hurotas yelled at me. ‘What are you trying to show us?’

  ‘Look at those prints there in the centre of the track. See how whoever made them is dragging his right foot.’

  ‘Panmasi!’ Rameses screamed the name as he realized what I was telling him. ‘The one whom Serrena herself forced us to release. The filthy ungrateful bastard came straight back here to seize her and spirit her away to Utteric’s lair.’

  ‘Well, at the very least we now know that there is an excellent chance that Serrena is still alive. Utteric would never allow Panmasi to kill such an invaluable hostage,’ I tried to console both Hurotas and Rameses.

  ‘I pra
y that you are right, Taita. But we must go after them at once.’ Rameses spoke like a man stretched on the torture rack. ‘We have to wrest Serrena from their clutches.’

  ‘This is my daughter, my only child, that these rogues have stolen from me. Rameses is right. We must go after her immediately.’ Hurotas was also consumed with rage and despair. ‘With the favour of the gods, we might just be able to catch them before they reach the mouth of the Nile, for that is certainly where they are taking her.’

  I was not in a much better state than either of them, but I was able to contain my emotions more firmly. ‘We must waste no more time here wailing and beating our breasts.’ I spoke harshly, trying to rally them. ‘By the time we have ridden back to Port Githion and prepared our ships for sea, Panmasi would have had almost a full ten hours’ start on us. Added to that we have no idea in what type of vessel he has spirited her away.’ I pointed out the marks of a ship’s bow in the sand at the edge of the beach. ‘The signs are that it is a small trading barque. But the sea between here and Egypt is littered with such vessels. As soon as each one spots us they will take us for pirates and run from us. We will have to chase down every vessel we sight: a long, dreary business. In the meantime Panmasi will be running for the Nile with every sail set and every oar double-manned.’

  That was sufficient for them to worry about at present, so I did not point out the possibility that Panmasi would not head directly for the mouth of the Nile. He might have arranged for chariots to be waiting at one of the many tiny ports on the North African coast to carry him and his captive overland to Luxor. Once Panmasi entered the Nile River or even the territory of Egypt he would be beyond our reach.