by N. L. Holmes
WayBack Press
P.O.Box 16066
Tampa, FL
۩
The North Wind Descends
Copyright © 2020 by N. L. Holmes
The Lord Hani MysteriesTM2020
All rights reserved.
Quotes from “The Instructions of Any”,”Love Poems”, and “The Instructions of Amenemope” from Ancient Egyptian Literature by Miriam Lichtheim, University of California Press (1976).
Cover art and map© by Streetlight Graphics.
Author photo© by Kipp Baker.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
The North Wind Descends (The Lord Hani Mysteries, #4)
Historical Notes
CHARACTERS
GLOSSARY OF PLACES, TERMS, AND GODS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 1
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Historical Notes
Our story takes place in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Akh-en-aten’s reign (by the reckoning of this account, his tenth alone on the throne), so about 1340 BCE. Those who deny him a coregency with his father would put the date five years later. We are entering one of the murkiest moments in Egyptian history, where the very identities of the monarchs are held in question. This is because the later successors of the “Heretic King” completely obliterated from the record him and his immediate successors. Scholars debate whether Ankh-khepru-ra Smenkh-ka-ra held a coregency with Akhenaten or ruled alone. Indeed, we don’t even know who he was—Akh-en-aten’s brother? His son? His wife, under a masculine name? A Hittite prince? The novelist has to make some choices, and they’re not always the most likely in the historical sense. It does seem to be true that he occupied the Teni-menu palace in Thebes, but as usual, we can’t be sure.
Egypt’s territory in Western Asia was divided into Djahy (Retjenu), corresponding roughly to Roman Palestina; Amurru, today’s coastal Lebanon and Syria; and Kharu, more or less today’s inland Syria. Both were divided into a multitude of small kingdoms whose kings were equated with the mayors of a city by their conquerors. In addition, several regional commissioners—generally Egyptians— administered the territory, collecting taxes, commanding native troops, and in return, defending their vassals. This system is revealed to us by the Amarna letters, a series of diplomatic correspondences between Egypt and her vassals, as well as other Great Kingdoms (empires), during the time of Akhenaten and his father.
Many of the events in our story are historical. Hani did receive the title “Master of the King’s Stable.” The common graves of child workers were found in the quarries that served the building of Akhet-aten. The wobbly loyalty of Biryawaza of Temesheq and Aitakkama of Qidshu, the defection of “Amanappa” (Amen-nefer) and a number of Egyptian soldiers to the hapiru, and the plan to send a military force to the north to clean things up are all attested. Shum-addi really was accused of robbing the Babylonians, who were then humiliated (or in our case, thought to be murdered) by the commissioner Amen-nefer. The Babylonians really invaded Urusalim. Amen-nefer’s other misdeeds are fictional.
Lord Ptah-mes’s involvement in the north is not recorded, but there was a high commissioner named “Maya,” and I have conflated the two characters. The Egyptians did indeed annex Mankhate for a regional capital. Likewise, the real Pa-aten-em-heb may or may not be the Atenist name of Har-em-heb, later a powerful general and even king. It is known that he fought in the north in his youth.
An overall note about the spellings of Egyptian names, which many readers will notice turn up in a variety of forms in different authors. The Egyptian writing system, like Arabic and Hebrew today, had no real vowels—for instance, Kemet, the name of the country, would have been literally KMT—so the vocalization of any given word is, with few exceptions, arbitrary. For example, Neferet and Nefert are the same word in variant reconstructions. I have tried to give something approximating the original (as far as we know it) without venturing too far from familiar forms in many cases (e.g., Aten and Amen rather than Itn and Imun).
Finally, it should be noted that much of the Near East was heavily forested in antiquity.
CHARACTERS
(Characters marked with an * are purely fictional)
Hani’s Family
A’a*: the doorkeeper of Hani’s family.
Amen-em-hut, Nub-nefer’s brother, Third Prophet of Amen.
Amen-em-ope known as Pa-kiki* (The Monkey), Hani and Nub-nefer’s younger son.
Amen-hotep known as Hani, a diplomat.
Amen-hotep known as Aha*, Hani and Nub-nefer’s elder son. Later takes the name Hesy-en-aten.
Amen-hotep known as Anuia, Amen-em-hut’s wife, a chantress of Amen.
Amen-hotep called Tepy*, Maya and Sat-hut-haru’s eldest son.
Amen-mes known as Maya*, Hani’s dwarf secretary and son-in-law, married to Sat-hut-haru.
Baket-iset*, Hani’s eldest daughter.
Bener-ib*, Neferet’s partner and fellow sunet.
In-hapy*, Maya’s mother, a royal goldsmith.
Iuty*, a gardener of Hani’s family.
Khawy*, an orphaned student taken in by the household.
Khentet-ka*, Aha’s wife.
Meryet-amen*, Mery-ra’s lady friend.
Mery-ra, Hani’s father.
Mut-nodjmet*: Pipi’s daughter, the wife of Pa-kiki.
Pa-ra-em-heb known as Pipi*, Hani’s brother.
Neferet*, Hani and Nub-nefer’s youngest daughter, a physician to the royal women.
Nub-nefer*, Hani’s wife, a chantress of Amen.
Qenyt-ta-sherit*: Yellow-eye the Younger, Hani’s pet heron.
Sat-hut-haru*, Hani and Nub-nefer’s second daughter, married to Maya.
Other Characters
Abdi-hepa: king of Urusalim.
Ah-mes-ankh*: commander of the garrison at Mankhate.
Aitakkama: king of Qidshu.
Ankh-khepru-ra Smenkh-ka-ra: Akh-en-aten’s brother (?) and coregent.
Amaya*: wife of Zalaya, a slave.
Amen-nefer (Amanappa): commissioner at Kumidi.
Apeny: Ptah-mes’s late wife, a fervent partisan of Amen-Ra.
Ay: the king’s uncle and father-in-law, a powerful courtier.
Bab-ilum: Babylon, “the gate of the gods.”
Bayadi*: a slave of Amen-nefer.
Bin-addi*: a slave of Amen-nefer
Biryawaza: king of Upi, with his capital at Temesheq (Damascus).
Burna-buriash: Kassite king of Babylonia (Sangar).
Djefat-nebty*: female physician of the royal women, with whom Neferet was apprenticed.
Esagil-kin-apli*: commandant of the Babylonian forces at Urusalim.
Hattusha-ziti: emissary of Shupiluliuma, king of Kheta (Hatti).
Huy: Ptah-mes’s you
nger son.
In-her-khau*: one of Hani’s staff.
Isesi-ankh*: an infantry officer.
Kalbaya*: Amen-nefer’s valet.
Meryet-aten: Akh-en-aten’s eldest daughter and wife of Smenkh-ka-ra.
Mut-em-wia: Ptah-mes’s eldest daughter.
Nabu-ahhe-idin*: a Babylonian military scribe.
Neb-amen*: a soldier stationed at Kumidi.
Neb-ma’at-ra Amen-hotep (III): Akh-en-aten’s father and predecessor.
Nefer-khepru-ra Wa-en-ra Akh-en-aten: the king of Kemet (originally Amen-hotep IV).
Nefert-iti Nefer-nefru-aten: Akh-en-aten’s Great Queen.
Pa-aten-em-heb: an infantry officer, formerly known as Har-em-heb.
Ptah-mes (known as Maya): Hani’s friend and immediate superior, who has been broken in rank and sent to Djahy.
Ra-nefer (Reanappa): an otherwise unknown official mentioned in the Amarna letters, so I have made him the vizier of the Lower Kingdom. The real name of Aper-el’s successor is unknown.
Shindi-shugab and Akhu-tsabu: Babylonian emissaries.
Shulum-marduk: Babylonian emissary.
Shum-addi: a leader of the hapiru.
Tut-ankh-aten: Akhenaten’s son (?) and heir.
Wah-ib-ra*: archivist of the army garrison at Hut-nen-nesut.
Zalaya*: a slave of Amen-nefer.
GLOSSARY OF PLACES, TERMS, AND GODS
Abana River: the river that runs through Damascus, today called the Rabada.
akh: the perfected soul after death has reunited all its parts.
Akhet-aten: the Horizon of the Aten, the new capital built by Akh-en-aten between Waset and Men-nefer.
Amen-Ra: Amen, the traditional creator god of Waset, later joined with the all-powerful sun god, Ra, to become the chief divinity of Egypt’s pantheon.
Ammit: “the devourer”, a monster who annihilated the souls of those who didn’t weigh out against the feather of Ma’at.
Aten: originally just the visible disk of the sun, the Aten became a kind of spiritual being, approached only through the king, that supplanted all the other gods in Akhenaten’s religious reforms.
Azzati: overall administrative capital of Egypt’s vassals in the north. Today’s Gaza.
Bes: a dwarfish part-lion god, protector of women and children.
Book of Going Forth by Day: a text collecting prayers and spells for successfully negotiating the judgment after death. In the New Kingdom, a copy was buried with the deceased.
deben: a unit of weight equaling 91 grams.
Djahy: generic name for the southern part of the Levant, corresponding more or less with Roman Palestina. Also called Retjenu.
Duat: the underworld.
Field of Reeds: site of the beautiful afterlife that the good would enjoy.
Golden Fly: a necklace with pendants shaped like large flies, which served as a medal for bravery on the battlefield.
Great House (Per-a’o): the palace, more broadly referring to the government and specifically to the king, hence our term “pharaoh.” (Cf. our use of “the White House.”)
hapir (pl. hapiru): member of a loose confederation of nomads, social outcasts, and runaway slaves who preyed on caravans and even attacked cities. They were a serious problem in the hinterland and eventually helped to destabilize the Bronze Age kingdoms.
Haru (Horus): a sun god, specifically the youthful morning sun. Normally the king was thought to be an incarnation of Haru while alive and of Osir when dead.
heb-sed: The Festival of the Bull’s Tail, a royal jubilee held after thirty years of reign and thereafter at more frequent intervals. It was thought to rejuvenate the king’s powers.
House of Royal Ornaments: the king’s harem in Hut-nen-nesut, where his lesser wives and concubines resided.
Hut-nen-nesut: Heracleopolis, a city at the juncture of the Nile and a canal cut to connect the river with Lake Pa-yom (today’s Fayyum Oasis).
Isfet: Chaos, the primal state, opposite of all that is true, good, ordered, and just.
iteru: a unit of distance equaling approximately a mile.
Kemet: meaning the Black Land, from the rich alluvial soil brought by the annual flood. This was what the Egyptians called their own country (Mizri to most of their neighbors).
Kharu: the northern part of the Levant, mostly today’s Syria.
Kheta: Hatti, the land of the Hittites, in central Anatolia, which is today’s Turkey.
Kumidi: one of the administrative capitals of Egypt among its northern vassals. Today’s Kamid al-Loz.
Kush: Nubia, a kingdom held by Egypt in what is now Sudan.
Lake of Fire: a place of torment in the afterlife.
Lover of Silence: Meret-seger, goddess of the west bank of the Nile where the dead were buried.
ma’at: the concept of justice, truth, and right order; with a capital M, the goddess who personifies these.
Men-nefer: Memphis, the pre-Amarna capital of the Northern Kingdom (Lower Egypt).
moringa: a tree that bears beans pressed to make oil.
Mut: consort of the god Amen-Ra. Her name means simply “mother.”
Naharin: Egypt’s name for Mitanni, an inland Syrian kingdom that had formerly been a powerful rival of Egypt and later an ally. Called Hanigalbat by the Hittites.
Neshite: the language of the Hittites.
Osir (Osiris): benevolent king of the underworld. The dead were thought to become one with him and are thus spoken of as an Osir.
Pa-yom: a lake in Lower Egypt used as a flood-control reservoir. It is now silted up and forms the Fayyum Oasis.
Qeden (Qatna): a formerly powerful kingdom on the Orontes River near Qidshu. Today’s Tell el-Mishrifeh.
Qidshu: the Egyptian name for Qadesh, a city on the Orontes River. Today’s Tell al-Nabi Mando.
River (Great River): the Nile.
Sangar: what the Egyptians called Babylonia (Karduniash to most of their neighbors).
Sekhmet: the lioness-headed goddess of plague and healing, as well as of the dangerous effects of the sun.
Serqet: a scorpion goddess who protected against poisonous bites and other harm.
shebyu collar: a necklace of lens-shaped gold beads; part of the gold of honor bestowed on someone who had earned the king’s favor, which signaled his elevation in rank.
shen ring: The hieroglyph for eternity, a coil of rope with a knot. The names of kings were written in an elongated form we call today a cartouche.
Shuppiluliuma: king of Hatti, who had expanded it into a powerful empire with holdings down into Syria.
Simurru (Tsumur): a coastal city, the capital of Amurru, formerly an Egyptian vassal.
sunet (m. sunu): a female physician of the scientific sort, as opposed to a priest or magical healer.
Sutesh (Seth): the god of chaos, always trying to undermine right order.
Siduna (Sidon): a coastal city in what is now Lebanon.
Temesheq: capital of the Syrian kingdom of Upi. Today’s Damascus.
Two Lands: another name for Egypt. It had originally been two distinct kingdoms, which were then united.
Urusalim: a Canaanite city in Djahy. Today’s Jerusalem.
Waset: the “city of the scepter” (was). Thebes, pre-Amarna capital of the Upper Kingdom.
Wawat: Lower Nubia, between Kush and Egypt, the site of many gold mines in the desert.
Way of Haru and the Royal Way (Way of the Sea): north-south roads through Egypt’s vassal states, well maintained for troop movement and provided with relay stations, water, and provisions.
Weighing of the Heart: the judgment of the soul after death, when a person’s heart was laid in the pan of a balance against the feather of Ma’at.
Wepet-renpet: New Year’s Day (“the opening of the year”). The exact date varied according to the date of the fall flood.
Dedicated to my husband, Ippokratis.
CHAPTER 1
Hani stood in the reception room of the vizier of the Lower Kingdom and wip
ed the sweat off his face with his arm. The dim, high-ceilinged hall was blessedly cool after the withering heat of the courtyard.
At his side, his secretary, Maya, said uneasily, “What do you suppose the vizier wants to see you for, my lord?”
“I have no idea, my friend. I’ve had precious little contact with Lord Ra-nefer since he took office except to send written reports. I think I’ve sort of slipped through the cracks of his notice, since I’ve been working locally.” Hani thought gratefully of his former direct superior, Lord Ptah-mes, who had managed to get him off the rolls of foreign postings. Alas, Ptah-mes himself, in disfavor with the king, was now stationed abroad at Azzati in Djahy.
“Maybe he wants to give you the gold of honor, eh, my lord?” Maya said sarcastically. Hani was no more in favor than his superior. His favor with the king had plunged after he’d only too successfully uncovered the mastermind of a series of tomb robberies two years before.
“More likely, he needs me to take the blame for some botch-up.” Hani grinned.
Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Lord Ra-nefer’s secretary at the vizier’s door. He tipped his head and said loftily, “The vizier of the Lower Kingdom will see you now.”
Hani took a deep breath and strode forward through the shadowy reception room and into an office luminous with the buffered glow from its high windows. The vizier sat on a fine chair on a dais. He was a rotund figure with a long kilt knotted across the chest and a thick neck full of gold that doubled his chins up. There was a sheen of sweat on his face.
Hani folded in a formal bow, hands on his knees, and when he rose, Lord Ra-nefer said in a high-pitched, weary voice, “The famous Hani. I thought I’d never meet you.”
“I’m honored by the summons, my lord.” Hani was unsettled. Famous? This hyperbole augured nothing good. He’d tried hard to stay below the notice of the court.
“Well, Ptah-mes isn’t around to intercede for you, so we’ll be seeing more of one another, I daresay—at least, until a new high commissioner of foreign affairs in the north is named.” Ra-nefer crossed his arms, which rested on the mound of his belly, and leaned back in his chair, while Hani waited, curious about why the vizier had called for him.