The Shining Cities: An Anthology of Pagan Science Fiction

by Lauren Teffeau

  “It does sound like a possible solution. But looking at your statue of Djehuty over there reminds me of the story of him tricking the moon out of his light in a game of senet. I'd need to know that you'd play fair, and I'd also need an advantage to even the odds. I've been playing for less than two tens of years. How long have you played, and what terms to you propose?”

  “I have played senet for ...” he paused, making a mental calculation, “... more than fifteen times as long as you. I promise you that I will not cheat, nor will I use heka to disturb the balance or influence the throwing sticks. If you win, you may trade papyri as you planned, and I will forget about the broken stele, blaming it on chance.”

  “And if I lose?”

  “You and your Akh remain here to entertain me.”

  Hmph. She was sure that if she had more time, she could have thought of another solution. But he had all the time in the world, and she did not. She was being hustled by a highly-skilled player. Being stuck here would end her career, but returning in defeat would as well. On the plus side, she might get to see how ancient history unfolded if she became a Ba-ghost too, but she'd probably have to put up with that horrid woman. Set out some conditions to level the playing field and make sure he's not cheating. And in the event that I lose, it should be on my terms.

  “I accept your wager, with the following conditions:” She began to count them off on her fingers. “One -- We will play up to four games of senet. This will help to adjust the balance in our experience playing the game. Two -- You will not cheat, influence the throwing sticks, or read my thoughts to discover my strategy, and you will swear a binding oath by the god Yinepu to that effect. Three -- If I win one of the games, I will trade my papyrus for yours, taking nothing else that belongs to you. I will replace the bricks I removed, re-sealing your tomb, and return to my home. Four -- If, by fair chance, I lose all four games, I and my AKH will remain here to entertain you. However, I will determine what constitutes suitable entertainment, within the laws of Ma'at. Five -- for the duration of the games, and forever after if I lose, you will protect me against all enemies, male or female. This especially includes your wife, Ahwere.”

  “Ahem, ahem,” the AKH cleared its virtual throat, a suggestion for another condition appearing on the screen.

  “Oh yes. Six -- I reserve the right to consult with my AKH in matters of strategy. Those are my conditions. Under normal circumstances I would name more as scope for negotiation, but if we take the time to do that I will not have enough time to play the games. So, agree to them all, or else.”

  “Or else?”

  “Or else Tasheen's conveyance outside and I will be forced to end our existence in the most violent way possible. It would result in the total destruction of the contents of this tomb, and the complete obliteration of your name, both within and without ....”

  Tasheen wasn't sure if the AKH was capable of such a thing, but she mentally sang the most vapid mind-destroying commercial vid jingle to thwart any mind-reading tricks as the AKH continued. Naneferkaptah looked at her in horror.

  “The destruction of your physical body, name, Ka-statue, and all your possessions would make your existence in the Otherworld far more unpleasant and risky .... Oh, I forgot. Of course you must also have a Ka-statue in your wife's tomb. You can always use that, and ask her for a share of her possessions to get by. A lesser man might be reluctant to give his wife so much power over him, but I cannot imagine that gentle Ahwere would withhold...”

  “Enough! Enough! Could he truly do this, Lady Tasheen?”

  She noticed she had been elevated to 'lady' status. The AKH's mention of Ahwere had hit home. “I can't tell you for sure. I wouldn't have thought so, but almost everything my AKH has done here today has surprised me. You are the one who likes wagers, and those stakes would be too high for me. He might be capable of destroying everything, or he might not. In your place, I would have to ask myself: How lucky do I feel today?” She switched her mental distraction tune to the theme of the old vid she had paraphrased.

  “Very well. I agree to your six conditions, as you stated them, and swear by Yinepu, He Who is Over the Secrets of the Divine Booth, He Who Does Not Sleep, that I will not cheat or read your mind to discover your strategy. Agreed?”

  “Agreed. Shall we begin?” Naneferkaptah got up and walked to the far side of the senet table, his chair following him and positioning itself just in time for him to sit. With a wave of his finger, he sent the statues Tasheen had placed there floating to positions on one of the nearby chests. He opened a drawer on the table and placed the lapis and carnelian pieces on the first fourteen squares, and they began casting the four throwing sticks to see which side each would play. He finally threw a one, giving him the hawks, beautifully-carved from lapis, and the first move.

  The opening play went quickly, and almost automatically, with both of them trying to advance their pieces along the thirty squares. When one of them landed on an opposing piece, the defender was sent back to the square the attacker had vacated.

  When pieces began to advance to the third row, she decided to play more aggressively, in some cases choosing to attack instead of moving a different piece to a clear space. She was able to send three of his back to the second row before her turn ended.

  “Aha! So the race truly begins!” He sent several of her pieces back, and managed to create a block with three consecutive pieces.

  “By the way,” she asked, studying one of her carnelian pieces before moving it, “do you know what these are? I know they're for the god Sutekh, but exactly what animal are they meant to be?”

  “Why, I've never really thought about it, other than it always being his symbol. I suppose it might be a donkey with the head of an oxyrhynchus fish? Or one of the odd creatures from beyond Nubia? I have no idea where those ears come from. I'll have to ask the other scribes the next time we have a party.”

  Drat. The identity of the odd hybrid Sutekh-animal was a perennial mystery, and so far nobody had been able to get a straight answer. There goes an easy chance for acclaim.

  The game continued, reaching the cutthroat stage. He had sent five of his hawks off the end of the track, and she finally won her sixth, with her remaining piece racing to victory. She groaned as an unlucky throw of the sticks landed it on the glyph for the waters of chaos, sending it all the way back to the ankh square. His last hawks exited the board unopposed.

  “An excellent game! Very enjoyable. Shall we begin the next?” As he replaced the playing pieces Tasheen noticed the board move up by a hand-span. She tried to adjust the position of the chest she was sitting on, then looked down. The chest, and worse, her feet had sunk into the stone floor to the level of her ankles, and were stuck fast.

  “Hey! That was only one game! What are you trying to do?”

  “I see nothing in your six conditions that forbids it. You aren't being harmed in any way. If anything, it may serve to encourage you to play more carefully.”

  She drew the lapis hawks for the next round. This time, Tasheen was determined to move her pieces forward, refraining from attacking his as long as possible. She had her last four hawks in the final row when her luck ran out. In a lucky sequence of throws, he swept all of them to the ankh, moving his last pieces off in his next turn.

  “The racing sparrow flies heedlessly into the net. The careful jackal sidesteps the trap.” He grinned at her in triumph.

  “I've never heard that maxim. Did you get that, AKH?”

  “Duly recorded. But you are now two games down.”

  "Down" was right. She'd sunk to the level of her calves.

  She drew the hawks again for the next game. This time, she took every opportunity to attack, and he mirrored her style, move for move. Again and again they sent opposing pieces back. It was a miracle if any piece got past the second row, but if it did, it raced to the finish. He managed to assemble a block, moving his remaining pieces, then moving the blocking pieces to the end in a single turn.

 
; It was the worst defeat yet. “Your prowess sinks as you do.” Now she was stuck in the floor up to her waist. She feared that if she lost the last game, her body would sink entirely into the stone, preserving it for eternity. Good from a magical funerary perspective perhaps, but disastrous for a career ... or anything else.

  “I can't even see the board now. That's hardly fair.” She glared at his self-satisfied expression.

  “Oh, very well.” He held out his palms, moving them downward, and the table sank to a playable level. “If you don't plan on improving your playing, you had best start thinking of some entertaining stories and songs I'm not likely to have heard.”

  “Don't count your quail-chicks before they break their shells. I request a short recess to plan the last game with my AKH. Would you please leave us to confer in privacy for a span?”

  He sighed. “That is within your sixth condition. I also promised not to try to discover your strategy, so be assured that I will not eavesdrop. Just call my name four times. I will hear and return. Don't go anywhere while I'm gone.” He walked to the false door, turned around to nod at her, then walked through it.

  “As if that's going to happen while I'm stuck in granite. We're both in a fix now, AKH. Do you have any brilliant suggestions?”

  “I have been analyzing the last three games, and it is clear that you overcompensated in the second game by avoiding aggression, and in the third by fully embracing it. In addition, I have been pursuing an analysis regarding the significance of senet itself to see if that can provide a clue to a successful strategy. Tell me, what is your understanding of the meaning of the game?”

  “The common theory is that it represents the deceased traveling through the hazards of the afterlife, eventually winning their way to judgment in the Hall of Ma'at. That's been the prevalent explanation for hundreds of years. It's the reason why tombs are decorated with pictures of the owners playing the game, and why the tombs contain actual games. Just like this one.”

  “That is the explanation I find in multiple Egyptological references, but none of the articles provides detail. I have been attempting to establish a symbolic correspondence between gameplay and any of the funerary literature. Symbol-processing is one of my strengths, yet I cannot establish any connection with a high degree of certainty.”

  “I'd never thought about it, but now that you mention it, the afterlife doesn't make much sense. If that were true, I'd expect my piece to pass through gates guarded by powerful spirits, not go down a track trying to send the other player to the beginning. And why in the world would already-dead people need senet in their tombs? They would have already passed through the trials.” She picked up two of the opposing pieces and studied them. “Maybe ... AKH, check the records. This must be a very early senet board, and I don't ever remember seeing one with Sutekh and Heru as playing pieces.”

  “You are sitting at the oldest senet board recorded, by at least 300 years. There is no board in my database that used carved images of Heru and Sutekh.”

  “These two represent the two competing forces of kingship. The stability and bureaucracy of Heru versus the power and dynamism of Sutekh. It's the two sides of the Balance of Ma'at, the central goddess and concept of the whole culture! That makes much more sense. Playing the game correctly would magically bring the players into alignment with Ma'at. Magic to benefit the living or the dead.” If she could win this last game, she'd have first publication on the magical papyrus, and a ground-breaking paper on senet as well. “Ma'at could be the key to winning! In the first game, I didn't play badly, but was hanging back to discover his style. As you said, I was too passive in the second game, and too aggressive in the third. He matched my strategy in both, and I didn't have a chance. The results of the last three games, and this possible symbolic meaning are both telling me 'balance.' I think I've cracked it; does it sound reasonable to you?”

  “One moment .... Yes. I have played 1,783 games of senet against a simulation of Naneferkaptah's playing styles in the last three games, and if moving your pieces forward is carefully balanced against attacking him, it will yield a significant advantage. In addition, if you tell me your intended move before touching your piece, I can simulate all possible moves for the next two or three turns, compared to all possible throws of the sticks, and warn you of significant dangers.”

  “That's my strategy, then. I don't have much time before sunrise, so here we go. Naneferkaptah, Naneferkaptah, Naneferkaptah. Na Nefer Ka Ptah!”

  “Yes?” He stuck his head through the stone of the false door again. “I would not have expected someone half-buried in stone to sound so confident.”

  “We'll see. Shall we begin?” This time Tasheen drew the Sutekh pieces. She took that as a good sign. He was a god of foreign lands; her future era was more foreign than the Arctic or tropical rainforests of this time. Maybe Sutekh would help her. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to connect with the dynamic principle, balanced in Ma'at.

  Most of the time, announcing her planned moves to her AKH was unnecessary, though in a couple instances he suggested a better move. Not always, though.

  “AKH, why'd you tell me to do that?” she asked, as the magician sent two of her pieces back, and created a block of three pieces in the same turn.

  “The random cast of throwing sticks means that low-probability results will sometimes occur. It was a calculated risk and there are very few certainties in life.”

  “Your Akh is wise, but I think I should have required him to promise that he would not read my mind, as I swore not to read yours.” He clucked his tongue as a bad cast ended his turn.

  “You have nothing to fear on that account. I have no ability to read minds. I have merely been contemplating the possible moves for each cast of the sticks, and advising Tasheen on the one most likely to lead to a positive result. I am alert to visual and auditory clues to a human's emotional state, however, and that can often indicate motivation. Skin temperature can also be an valuable indicator. However, in your case ....”

  “There's no body temperature for my AKH to read. Hey!” She rolled a three, allowing her to move her next-to-last piece off the board. Her last piece was behind the magician's last three pieces, blocking any further moves.

  With his next throw, he landed one of his pieces on the house of three truths, the square Tasheen's piece had just vacated. A five put his next piece in the Horus square, which would require a two to leave the board.

  “The final few casts are approaching; this has been one of the most enjoyable senet games I've played in at least two hundred years.”

  She nodded. “It has. At times, I could almost forget that I'm playing for my life, in more ways than one.” Rolling the playing sticks between her palms, she closed her eyes and thought: Sutekh, until today I had no idea that any of this was real. To tell the truth, I'm still not sure. I won't attempt to threaten you, even though I know that can be part of this tradition. Instead, I'll offer you a deal. If you help me get the right throws to win this game and return home, I'll make regular offerings to you. I'll also work to learn more about the functional side honoring the gods. If I lose, I'll die and won't be able to do anything for you. I think in my time you have very few followers, so you'll be gaining a lot. I swear this by Yinepu, in his tent, may it be a thousand times effective. She slid her hands apart, letting the sticks fall.

  “An interesting cast,” Naneferkaptah said.

  Tasheen opened her eyes and saw that all four sticks had fallen light-side up. “AKH, what are my odds? I think with only one piece left I don't have many options on how to move.”

  “There was a six percent chance of throwing a five, which of course gives you another turn. This puts your Sutekh in square twenty-five. A roll of two will land you on the waters of chaos, sending you back to the ankh, the most likely outcome. A roll of three or four would move you onto the 'safe' squares already occupied by Naneferkaptah's pieces, forcing you to move backwards instead. There is a thirty-one percent
chance of a one or five, which would both be favorable.”

  “Wait. Lord Akh, are you saying you can predict how the sticks will fall? Can you reveal the spell for that?”

  “It is very simple. If you were to cast a single stick, the result will be light half the time, and dark half the time. However, if you cast four of them, there is only one way you can get four dark, and one way you can get four light. Throwing a two is far more likely, because any two may come up light, and any two dark.”

  The magician frowned for a second, then brightened. “I think I see. It would be easier for me to find one person who might agree with me on some point than to find three other people who all agreed with me!”

  Tasheen had been rolling the sticks during this exchange, and finally cast them. “A one! Thank you, Sutekh!” She moved her piece to the beauties square, which allowed her to jump over the dangerous squares and the opposing hawks, landing on the final square and giving her an extra turn.

  “If you were to cast the sticks a thousand times and tally the results, you will find that you are six times as likely to get a two than a four or a five. A one or a three are three times as likely as a four or five. And so forth.”

  “Shhh! I'm trying to concentrate on a one.” She rolled the sticks for a few more seconds, then dropped them. One of them was light, one was dark, and the other two were lying on their sides, leaning on their neighbors. She looked up at her opponent.

  “That signifies a throw of Amunet, twice unknowable. You must try again.”

  “Come on, Sutekh, it's getting late. Give me a one!” With her eyes closed again, she brought her hands up as she dropped the sticks, hoping they wouldn't interfere with each other.