Djoser’s mother was next to speak.
‘Anyway Djoser, you rarely visit without some ulterior motive. What have you broken into your busy schedule for today?’
If there was any criticism in her voice, Djoser didn’t pick up on it.
‘Last week I had to go to Iunet, to see the new Temple to Hathor and I called in to see Perneb and his family whilst there.’
He didn’t want to tell them the real reason he had travelled north.
‘How is Nofret?’ his mother asked quickly before he could continue.
‘You’ll see for yourself soon enough,’ replied Djoser, ‘she and Perneb are coming to visit you, along with another old friend, the day after tomorrow. I have come to give you some advance warning.’
‘They are always welcome here, but they’ll have to just take us as they find us.’
‘They know that mother. They told me that’s why they enjoy coming here. There is no standing on ceremony, no falseness. A warm welcome, great, simple food and the good and easy company of old friends. I’m quoting directly,’ said Djoser.
‘Will you get the girls to come?’ his sister asked.
‘Yes, do,’ added his mother. ‘They can play for our guests. It seems a long time since I heard them play. It would be a great joy for me to hear them too.’
‘You said, “and another old friend”,’ Djoser. Who do you mean?’ interrupted Kha.
‘Oh only someone I bumped into at Perneb’s house,’ said Djoser. ‘He was passing by, at the same time, and called in. He spoke of you and said it was too long since he came here so he decided to join Perneb and Nofret.’
‘Who is he?’ Kha said, with a growing tone of irritation in his voice.
‘Yuya,’ replied Djoser, a broad smile on his face.
‘Will Tjuya also be coming?’ Djoser’s mother asked quickly. ‘This puts a whole different complexion on the visit. Tjuya is a lovely person but she likes things to be done in a certain way. The day after tomorrow you say? There’s no time to do things properly, we have to prepare. Merit quick, leave the bread. Go to the market, we need so many things.’
‘Mother, please calm down,’ Djoser tried to say, but Merit was oblivious.
‘Merit, we need to make a list, we’ll need so much, Djoser why didn’t you give me more warning.’
‘Tjuya is not coming. Please, calm down.’ Djoser almost had to shout to get her attention. ‘She, together with the King’s mother and the Queens, Tiye and Kirgipa, are busy organising something for young Prince Thutmose. She will be sending her apologies to you with Yuya and you will be receiving an invitation to their quarters in the new Palace after the festival. I really don’t know why you worry about her so much. She seems perfectly normal to me.’
Panic over, Merit took a deep breath.
‘Tjuya was brought up in the Palace nursery amongst children of nobles and the King. Before marrying Yuya, she was married before. At a very young age she became one of several young wives taken by the Master of Horse, an extremely wealthy man. So she’s always had the best of everything.’
‘She’s a spoilt brat,’ interpolated Kha, ‘who almost destroyed Yuya’s life.’
‘Now Kha,’ said Merit, ‘you’re talking ancient history; that was long before they got married. If it had been a problem for Yuya he would never have married her after his wife died and after he had reluctantly complied with his father’s insistence to give up his two sons.’
Djoser had heard the story of Tjuya many times. She was the youngest of the wives of the Master of Horse, Yuya’s slave master, when he first arrived in Kemet. He was a kindly man who had taken pity on the young foreigner, who was little more than a child. He saw great potential in Yuya and soon promoted him to chief servant. Tjuya was thirty years younger than her husband, who, so it was rumoured, was a eunuch. She became besotted with the handsome servant who was about the same age. She coveted the young Yuya and made advances to him. When he rejected those advances, out of a sense of duty to his master, Tjuya falsely accused him of molesting her.
This led to Yuya being taken away from the household and imprisoned. His master never believed the story told by Tjuya, but she had falsified incriminating evidence. All were obliged to accept the decision of the tribunal. It was not until some years later, following a request from the King himself, she admitted the lies. By then, forced to live in prison, strong bonds of friendship had been forged. These bonds lasted through decades and meant, Yuya, the second most honoured and important man in the Two Lands, would be coming to the house of Kha, a tomb painter and ex-prisoner, together with Perneb, a convicted thief, in love and friendship to talk over old times.
‘He married her out of pity,’ said Kha.
‘What nonsense you speak,’ retorted his wife. ‘Yuya always loved her, it was just the fact she was married to his master. He was a servant, worse a foreign servant, what could he have done? She was a foolish young girl who let her infatuation get the better of her. You know, as well as I, Yuya was very happy in his marriage to Asenath. It’s a pity she was so frail. He was heartbroken when she died so suddenly, I should know, I was there trying to help care for her at the end. It was purely by chance that he met Tjuya again after she too had become widowed. They were both free, older and wiser. Their marriage was a blessing for them both. Yes, she likes things the way she likes them. Yes, her tastes are expensive, but this is just the way she is. She is a lovely, kind and generous lady – just a little difficult to cater for and it makes my life easier that she is not coming here to visit at such short notice. I’ll accept her invitation to visit with great joy and anticipation; however, I’ll need a new gown and some nice jewellery.’
Kha raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
*
In Waset, three great building projects were all coming to fruition. It had taken much co-ordination, thousands of workers and enormous sums of money to make it happen. The Palace was now complete. The guests were starting to arrive. Each, full of praise not only for the structure and architecture but for the decoration. The finest materials had been used.
Each room was decorated with different patterns. The general rooms displayed geometrical designs on the walls. Ceilings were resplendent, many of them with images of the goddess, Nekbhet, in her form as a vulture. Some showed pictures of stars and the moon, others had brightly coloured shapes, circles, coils, diamonds and crosses. Bright blues and oranges filled every room and passageway. The main audience chamber’s walls were decorated with scenes from the river and marshes, reeds, plant life of all descriptions with animals and birds going about their daily lives. The ceiling, held up by gold covered giant, wooden papyrus-shaped columns, paid homage to the sun god Ra and the Aten.
The sun appeared in three phases. On the east wall, Ra was depicted bringing the day’s early light to the marshes. Its illumination spreading from the horizon. The ceiling was bright with the light of the Aten at midday, then, on the west wall, the sunset was shown with Ra-Atum, a bright red ball sinking low, emitting a vermillion glow over the river. Birds were shadows, flying in the air, or nestling in the reeds. The Palace was a wonder and a great honour to behold.
No time, nor money, had been spared in the construction of the Palace. The private quarters were equally impressive but only a privileged few would ever see those. The villas, constructed to house the family of the King, were opulent. Even Tjuya gasped at her first sight of the building constructed for her and Yuya. Haqwaset was certainly not afraid to use the gold he had in abundance, but also silver and precious stones were used to decorate pillars, walls and the many statues which were everywhere. Portraits of Queen Tiye were common place alongside statues of the Royal couple. The eyes on many of the statues were of the new material made from quartz and plant ash. This material, which had been imported from neighbouring countries for many years, was now being made in a secret factory behind the Palace.
/> The system of heating sand and other elements, grinding down, washing and reheating them, adding colour, produced round ingots or eye shaped blue pieces used in the statues. Haqwaset was proud of this new component. His craftsmen had made small animal shapes and some jewellery from the semi-precious substance and had told him one day small containers could be made to hold perfume and other precious liquids. Haqwaset was dubious about this but was content with the rarity and sight of the pieces which were now being produced.
Haqwaset wanted to show Yuya the new funerary Temple. They rode, together with the two Princes Thutmose and Teppy, Perneb and a few other selected guests, out of the Palace gates and across the dry roads, stopping beside the two colossal statues marking the entrance to the Temple.
‘You don’t do anything in moderation,’ said Yuya, straining his neck to look at the top of the statues.
The two gigantic forms, rising more than forty cubits above the ground, although similar, were different. One showed the King with his mother whilst the other showed him with Tiye. The statues stood on either side of the entrance in a wall, higher even than the statues.
The group dismounted the chariots and walked through the entrance. A vast walkway lined by two rows of statues to the goddess Sekhmet, shown as having the body of a woman and the head of a lion, spread out in front of them.
The statues alternating between sitting and standing, lined the walkway all the way to the second pylon. The two young Princes, who were joined by Smenkhare, were happily running around, darting between the statues. Yuya smiled at their energy and enthusiasm for life. In front of the second pylon there were two more enormous statues, not as big as those at the entrance, but still impressive. These were identical, but mirror images of each other, and showed the King standing. In his outer hand he held a golden full length crook with blue bands, in the other, adjacent to the open gateway, he carried a golden flail. The beads were alternating blue and gold. These symbols of his Kingship were breath-taking, as was the glorious double crown on the head of each of the two giant stone forms.
Through the second pylon, more statues of the standing and seated Sekhmet followed on each side to the third and final pylon.
‘How many statues of Sekhmet have you made to line this walkway? It must be four hundred paces long?’ asked Perneb.
‘One of each for every day of the year,’ replied Haqwaset. ‘Although I must say I have never counted them. I wanted to fill the space available. Huy designed the entire complex. If he tells me there are seven hundred and thirty statues of Sekhmet, I wouldn’t doubt its accuracy.’
On reaching the third pylon, the Great Hall of the Temple came into view. Square in form, it had an open centre. Behind it, was a tall structure consisting of two pillars on the top of which appeared to be a boat. It was a large vessel with a central wooden structure and seemed incongruous and out of place in its position. Yuya had walked through the Temple complex without speaking. He had occasionally stopped and turned, looking about him with a somewhat puzzled expression. As they reached the Great Hall he spoke for the first time.
‘Haqwaset, is it not a concern that this Temple has been set so low, when the waters of the inundation come, it will be flooded?’
‘A concern? Not at all, Yuya, far from it. It’s designed deliberately that way. The whole complex will be covered in water each year and, as the waters recede, the Temple will emerge from the waters, signifying the rebirth of the land. The river brings a gift of abundance which allows us all to feed and live well. Now it will also give up this glorious Temple and, every year, I will be remembered and honoured, for as long as it, and my statues, stand.’
‘You will be remembered for all the work and hard labour which will be needed to remove the silt from the statues and walkways and clean the hall and walls, that’s for sure,’ exclaimed Yuya. ‘What is the boat doing up there?’
‘My favourite part of the whole project. Something the High Priest across the river particularly hates, which means I like it the more. The boat, as you call it my great teacher, is a symbol created in deference to you and your god,’ Haqwaset replied.
Yuya looked quizzical. Haqwaset continued.
‘Do you not recall telling me a story Yuya, when I was a child, about how your god was so angry with the world that he resolved to destroy it by flooding?’
‘Yes,’ said Yuya extremely slowly and with some suspicion.
‘How he caused one of your ancestors to build a boat, a great Ark, which would enable certain people and animals to survive the flooding?’
‘Yes,’ repeated Yuya.
‘Well,’ said Haqwaset, ‘the boat is my Ark. The only part of the complex visible during the height of the inundation, it will be seen as a symbol that the gods have not destroyed the Temple, it will be rejuvenated like the land and, those who honour me, will be safe and will prosper.’
‘I hadn’t realised you paid so much attention to what I told you as a child.’
‘You were my father’s greatest friend, Yuya. He trusted you above anyone else in the world, why should I not also? I can’t agree with all of your beliefs but I do find merit in much of what you say – and I liked the story which was the inspiration to the positioning of this Temple. Huy, was uncertain how the bricks would stand up to repeated attacks by water but, as I told him, I am the living god on earth, he should leave such worries to me.’
chapter twenty-three
The Festival of the Valley always took place on the day of the new moon, in the tenth month. The astronomers had fixed the lunar date, late in the month this year. Maiherpri was excited by the news of the arrival of his parents and had requested permission to leave his duties to meet them on the road.
In the past weeks he had been spending more and more time in the company of Amunitore. They had become inseparable. If there had been a plot, hatched by his mother to bring them together, it had certainly worked. Haqwaset had given permission for Maiherpri to take one of the ceremonial chariots and he set off happily, at a great gallop, with Amunitore by his side.
The news, of the arrival of Merymose and his entourage, reached other ears. Across the river, in the Temple complex, Nahkt was pondering over a message from one of his spies. Nahkt hated Merymose as much as he hated Yuya, or Tiye. Merymose controlled Kush and therefore controlled the flow of gold and other riches coming from there. The priest spent a lot of time, effort and money setting up a smuggling operation, which had been very lucrative, only for Merymose to discover it and execute Nahkt’s suppliers. Nahkt kept distance between himself and those who did his illicit work. The nearest anyone got to him were the two gigantesque Nubian bodyguards, who were now standing guard outside his house. Anyone meeting these men would only have done so at night, in the desert, and it would have been nearly impossible to infer they were acting for him. The executions had taken place a year ago. This was the first time, since then, that Merymose was journeying to Waset to meet the King. Nahkt was as sure as he could be that there had been no messages delivered from Kush concerning him. His chief spy in the Viceroy’s Palace was very well connected and his information, extremely reliable.
Nahkt paced around.
‘This is my chance for revenge and to be rid of Merymose,’ he said to the piece of papyrus in his hand. ‘Kushite gold has always helped me to keep my position. Without it, I’m having to resort to raiding the tombs of kings.’
He and the High Priest had an understanding and mutual loathing for the foreigner, Yuya. They detested the influence he was exerting on the Royal Family and their religious beliefs. Their hatred extended to Yuya’s daughter, the ‘Great Royal Wife’ Tiye, and the fact the King was so besotted with her. They believed she was able to use her feminine, sacrilegious guile to move the King’s thoughts away from the true gods, particularly Amun. They abhorred the whole family and everything they stood for.
Due to Royal patronage, for hundreds of years, t
he worship of Amun had grown. With rising popularity and state approval, the Priests of Amun, with their base in Waset, became both powerful and rich. So powerful that when the current High Priest’s predecessor had objected to the marriage of Haqwaset to Tiye he was both shocked and humiliated that his decree hadn’t only been ignored, but he had been ridiculed. He had been demeaned publicly, by the heqa, Yuya, the King’s Regent and father of the intended bride. Admonished, for all to hear, that his role was to serve the god, Amun, whose son on earth was Haqwaset, and not interfere in matters of state. The King, in person or through his Regent, would make all decisions which affected his life, without comment or dissention from a priest. The High Priest had stormed out of the Palace.
‘That heqa with his blasphemous belief in only one, all-powerful god is cementing his stranglehold on the Royal family and forcing this marriage on the boy. The King should have married his sister in accordance with tradition, not a black-faced foreigner who wishes to destroy the beliefs in the true gods,’ he said on his return to the Temple.
Nahkt had been a favourite of the old High Priest, so much so that he had been chosen to marry Tawy after she had been raped and left with child. Nahkt had seen this as an honour. They were co-conspirators, together with the man who was now the High Priest.
‘I want you to promise me, Nahkt, whether I’m alive or dead, that any male child born to Haqwaset and Tiye will be destroyed before it utters its first cry. We can’t risk a son of the blackened witch ever becoming king.’
‘I promise, favoured prophet of Amun. I shall ensure it’s done.’
Nahkt had insinuated his spy network into the Palace. This included two women in the bedchamber of the Queen. One was to assist the Queen during labour, ideally placed to suffocate the child before anyone knew it lived. Stillbirths were commonplace. No-one would suspect anything. All was going to plan.
‘What, in the name of Amun, do you mean? “The nurse has become beguiled by the black witch and told her of the plan.” What has she said? Who has she given up to them?’ Nahkt yelled at one of his spies who came with the bad news.
The Awakening Aten Page 27