The sun glinted off something in the thickest bushes—a clump of acacia. Kepi watched one of the men with his fist circling the hilt of a knife held ready by his cheek. She spied other crew members now. Three were crawling on their bellies, hidden from the oryx by the reeds. They had spears. They were closing in on a mother and calf. At a flap of the arm from the lead hunter, all three stood and threw spears at the calf. Instantly, other men popped up from behind another group of reeds and shouted and banged metal sticks on a big metal disk. The noise was brash and loud. The herd took off. The poor mother oryx circled her fallen calf once, eyes frantic, then ran with the herd. The air was full of adult pelicans in flight and the screaming cries of their chicks left behind.
The man with the raised knife ran forth from the acacia bushes now and slit the calf’s throat. And all the men got busy preparing the meat. They built a fire and wrapped chunks of the meat in wet papyrus to roast in the embers.
Menes carried Kepi down to the lake and deposited her at the very edge of the water. “I’ll go get us something to eat.”
Strong—stout heart against a steep hill. Kepi looked straight in Menes’s eyes. “Babu’s hungry, too.”
“I didn’t bring any more goat milk. It would have rotted in the sun. But there’s honey in a jar inside the satchel you’re carrying. Wash out your cut and smear some on it, too.”
“Honey on a cut? Don’t you know anything about wounds? You’re supposed to use dung.”
“Bathe while you’re at it.”
“What if there are crocodiles?”
“They’d be pretty dumb pelicans to breed here then, wouldn’t they?” Menes walked off.
Kepi looked around. Some of the men were bathing in the lake. It was so shallow, they could stand, even in the middle. Crocodiles preferred deep water, especially in the cooler months, like now. She put her hand in the water. It was cool, but not nearly as chilly as she’d expected. The sun did a better job on shallow pools than on deep ones. Well, all right. She waded in a few steps and sat on the soft silty bottom with all her clothes on. She was old enough to be wary of undressing around men. Besides, this way, she could wash her clothes at the same time. She rubbed herself all over through her dress. Then she took off the bands that held her locks into pigtails, leaned back, and rinsed out her hair.
Babu screeched in protest and splashed to the shore. He sat there shivering and whimpering in the sunlight.
“Poor Babu,” called Kepi, shivering herself. “But I’ll feed you now.” She hobbled to the shore and shook off. She stayed standing, even though it meant putting all her weight on her one good foot, because that way she’d dry off without getting dirty again. She leaned over and picked up the cloth satchel. Babu climbed up and clung to her chest. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like wet hair?” Kepi found the jar of honey and fed Babu from her fingers. The little baboon ate eagerly. “Don’t get used to it. Honey alone isn’t enough for a baboon to grow big on.”
Menes came over and spread out papyrus on the ground, with a heap of meat in the center. “You didn’t wash out your cut.”
Kepi shrugged. The cloth on her knee was soaked through. “I can’t undo the knot now that it’s wet.”
“You should have taken off the cloth before you went in the water.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“Here.” Menes took the honey jar from Kepi and gave her a hunk of meat. Then he took out a knife, knelt, and cut the cloth off her knee. “Impressive gash. How’d you manage to do that?”
Kepi licked the meat juice from her bottom lip. She had never tasted anything like it. Light and somehow sweet. Very different from goat. “I’m not telling.”
“You’re a lot of trouble, you know that?” Menes shook his head and grinned up at her. “This looks pretty clean, I guess.” He smeared honey on her cut.
“Aiii!”
“It’ll help, I swear. And here, eat these.” He gave her a handful of freshly pulled wild garlic plants. The bottoms had only barely begun to form bulbs. “They’ll make it hurt less.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Just eat the garlic and try to be reasonable.”
Kepi knew it was fine to eat garlic. She washed the plants in the lake and ate slowly. The other men were at the far edge of the lake, lying on the ground near the fire. Some were eating and talking. Some were napping. Only Menes really paid any attention to her.
She was clean; her stomach was full. For a moment, nothing felt threatening. That realization jarred her; she couldn’t afford to let her guard down.
Chapter 12
Decision
“Why are you stealing Babu and me?”
Menes stretched. “Rescuing, not stealing. You’re going to have a much better life this way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m taking you to Ineb Hedj.”
Kepi’s head dropped forward. “That’s way up north!”
“At the start of the delta. I’m glad to see you know something, at least.”
“Everyone knows about Ineb Hedj. It’s the capital of all Egypt.”
“It’s the biggest city anywhere. And that’s where the most important temples are. That’s where they use baboons.”
Kepi’s jaw clenched in fear. “What do mean, use baboons?”
“In the temples. With the hem-netjer tepey, the high priest. I bet you’ve never even seen a priest except at a festival. But I’ve listened to people talk. It’s something new; the rich people all believe in it. Babu will be part of the religious ceremonies. He’ll have a wonderful life. And as his trainer, you will, too.”
“No. I’m not going to Ineb Hedj. I’m going home. Right now.”
“Oh, sure, you’re going to limp along the shore, crying from pain, and the very first night a croc will eat you.”
Kepi didn’t bother to point out that she hadn’t cried at all. “I’ll walk inland.”
“Where a lion will eat you. Listen to me, Kepi. City life is exciting. A lot better than being a country peasant. You’ve got a chance to change your whole life.”
Kepi thought of Nanu and Mother and Father. She thought of the sweet-smelling reed mat she slept on at home and how she always fell asleep watching the lights in the sky out the high window. And most of all, she thought about how much Father needed her right now. “I don’t want to change my life.”
“You should. Look at you. You’re so poor, you don’t have a single piece of jewelry. Every Egyptian girl should have at least an amulet. Even a servant. Even a slave. Whoever owns you doesn’t deserve you.”
“I have plenty of jewelry. My mother made me take it off to go do an errand for my father, because I always lose things.”
“You tell too many lies.”
“No, I don’t. I have a good life. I don’t want to change it.”
Menes rubbed at the corner of his eye thoughtfully. “All right, then. Go. Go back home. Or go anywhere you want. If that wound doesn’t fester, you’ll be able to run in another couple of days. Maybe you can make it home alive. I wouldn’t bet on it. But who knows. So go. Limp away. Just leave that baboon behind.”
“I won’t leave Babu.”
“And I won’t let you take him. So leave—go away on your own. Or come with us. But make up your mind fast, because if you’re going to leave, you have to hide somewhere now, while the others are busy. If they know what you’re up to, they’ll never let you.”
Menes didn’t know anything about Babu. If Kepi wanted, she could make the little baboon scamper off, out of reach of all the men. They could chase and chase him, but they’d never catch him. Then after they left, she could call to him and they’d be together again: Kepi and Babu.
So losing Babu wasn’t really a problem. The problem was everything else.
Kepi looked around. This lake was a safe place—Menes was right. She could stay here till her knee healed. And she could find a sharp rock and cut enough papyrus to make a small boat to carry her and Babu home. Pa
ddling against the current would be hard. So she’d use long sticks as poles, and her dress would make a decent sail stretched between them. They could eat bird eggs, or catch fish, or even eat baby birds if they had to. Babu wouldn’t like it, but he’d adjust. Kepi would help him. She’d sing to him; that always made him happy. At night they’d sleep under palm fronds. It would work. Kepi knew survival skills. All those weeks of exploring with Father during the flooding season had prepared her perfectly for this.
Menes thought Kepi couldn’t do it. He thought he had her trapped. He knew as little about her as he knew about Babu. She should go hide and let the men leave. Without her.
To Ineb Hedj. The capital.
Pharaoh Khufu lived in the capital.
A small thumping started within her.
Kepi licked her bottom lip. She wasn’t an idiot, no matter what Menes said. She didn’t fool herself. It would take a while for her knee to heal, and then a really long time to get home in a tiny boat, if in fact she could manage to make a craft that was riverworthy. Days and days. Maybe even weeks. By that time, Father’s baking business could have failed completely. He had made a big mistake to pay those men to sow old Ashai’s field before he knew whether people liked his herb breads.
Her father didn’t really know anything about baking. He was a farmer. He was only doing this because Pharaoh Khufu had sent him home, empty-handed and unable to return to his old work. Pharaoh Khufu had ruined his life.
Someone had to tell the pharaoh what Father was going through. And Father said that another man got hurt in the same accident that he got hurt in. Someone had to tell Pharaoh Khufu to help that man, too. The pharaoh owed it to them.
The thumping inside her grew fast and loud.
Kepi didn’t want to go to Ineb Hedj. She didn’t like Menes anymore, and she’d never particularly liked the other men. She wanted to go home. That was the right thing for her.
But it wasn’t the right thing for her father. Kepi had wanted to fix everything with her idea of fruit bread. That was a bad idea—that made all this trouble. But now she could fix everything a different way.
She’d promised herself that if she ever got the chance to talk to Pharaoh Khufu, she’d take it. What was the point of a promise if you didn’t keep it?
“I’ll go with you to Ineb Hedj.”
Menes had been watching her this whole time. “Good. You’re kind of fun.” He put the stopper on the honey jar and closed up his cloth parcel. “Eat more. Come on. It’s great and you know it.”
Kepi forced down a bite. Her body was filled with the drumbeat still, her chest and neck and head were hot, her eyes burned. But this meat was good, and she needed the strength it would give her, and most of all, it was important never to waste meat. Everyone should be grateful for the sacrifice of an animal’s life. She silently thanked the oryx calf.
When Menes offered his back to her for the return trip to the boat, Kepi hesitated. She didn’t want to act like buddies with Menes. He wasn’t her buddy. She was going with him because that was the only way to get to Ineb Hedj. But Menes was the one who had stolen her in the first place. How could she ever understand that? How could she forgive it? She looked around at the other crew members. Wouldn’t someone else offer her an arm to lean on? There must be at least one who was halfway nice. But they just walked on by.
Menes finally stood up. “What are you waiting for?” He spit to the side, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I saw how you looked at the other men just now. Maybe you think someone will help you somehow. No one will. We’re all partners. We’re going to split the money from trading you.”
“Trading me?” Her flesh crawled. “Like a slave? I’m not a slave. You can’t take Egyptian girls and make them slaves. That’s against the law!”
“You’re Nubian.”
“I am not.”
“You are if I say you are.”
“Then how come I speak Egyptian and I don’t understand a word of Nubian?”
“You’ve been with us long enough to learn Egyptian. And you’re just pretending when you act like you don’t know Nubian.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is if I say it is.” He turned and squatted. “Get on my back.”
“I’ll walk to the boat on my own.”
“You can’t. So either get on my back or I’ll carry you under my arm and your knee will hurt a lot worse.”
“You’re awful.”
“It’s not going to be like a slave, Kepi. You’ll have a good life. Really. Especially if they keep you on as the baboon’s trainer. Get on. I’ll carry you to the basket.”
“But I agreed to come. I don’t want to stay in the basket like a prisoner.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you agreed or not. And don’t you ever say anything about me offering you a choice. As far as the men are concerned, you’re a prisoner. They want you in the basket.”
“So I’ll tell them I really want to go to Ineb Hedj.”
“Who would believe you? They’d figure you just wanted more freedom so you could find a chance to escape.” Menes squatted. “Get on.”
Kepi held in her fury and climbed onto Menes’s back. And the funny thing was, her knee didn’t hurt as badly now. Maybe the garlic really did fight pain. Maybe the honey really did help heal. But Menes was awful, all the same. He thought it was all right to steal and trade little girls. She couldn’t wait to get to Ineb Hedj so she and Babu could run away from him.
Chapter 13
Three in the Basket
Early that afternoon Kepi was standing in her basket on the boat with Babu on her head when they passed shining cliffs on the east bank. Then she saw huge mud-brick walls up ahead on the west bank.
Menes left his bench and came over. He handed her the nasty bowl. “Time to close you in.”
“Why?”
“That’s the city of Nekhen up ahead. We’re stopping there for the night. If you weren’t such a problem, you could come out and see things. There are two stone statues of Pharaoh Khasekhemwy. They’re over a hundred years old. Big things—life-size. And there’s a temple to the god Horus. You couldn’t go in it, of course, but it’s enough to see just from the outside. And the breweries! They’re among the best the entire length of the Nile.”
“Babu can’t keep eating nothing but honey. He’ll get sick. And I’m hungry. You won’t be able to sell us if we’re sick and hungry. You have to let us out.”
“Look out below. The lid’s coming down.” Menes held the lid high and lowered it fast.
Kepi had barely enough time to crouch out of the way. She quickly pushed up against the lid with both hands. But Menes was obviously pushing back. And soon nothing was pushing back, but the sides of the lid held fast; he’d tied it shut.
She sat on the bottom of the basket. Menes had turned it upside down and dumped all the pottery shards into the river before he put her back in it, so there was no risk of getting cut. The only thing in there with her and Babu was the nasty bowl he had just handed her. Not even the last of the poppy seedpods or the goat cheese was left. Menes must have dumped them in the river, too.
She put her ear to the small hole she had sawed in the side of the basket and listened as the men rowed up to the dock and anchored. She heard them moving about the deck. Then they were gone. Probably not all—probably one or two were still there, guarding whatever was in the baskets. But basically, the crew was off doing whatever the crew did in town, and Kepi was stuck here.
She stretched out in the bottom of the basket, and Babu burrowed under her arm. She was really on a boat, really going to see the pharaoh. All by herself. No mother, no father, no sister. How on earth had her life turned upside down so fast? The magnitude of it hit her. Tears ran hot from the corners of her eyes, down her temples, into her hair. She rocked her head from side to side, on and on and on.
Then she just lay still.
What must Mother be thinking now? And Father, and Nanu? They must be crying
. Little girls who disappeared overnight sometimes never came home again. But Kepi would get home again. She wished she could tell them that; she wished she could send a message somehow.
Baaaa! Naaaa!
Kepi’s eyes popped open. She must have been in that position for a long time, because her neck had a mean kink. The lid was off the basket, and she looked up straight at the underside of a nanny goat.
“Move,” said Menes, outlined by the light from the setting sun.
Kepi stood and hunched against the side. Babu held on to her tight and stared at the goat.
Menes lowered the goat into the basket as far as he could, then dropped her the last little bit. “Fresh milk whenever Babu wants it. What do you think of that?”
“I’m not sharing my basket with a smelly goat.”
“When we’re docked you are. During the day, when we’re traveling the river, the goat can stay out on deck.”
“The goat gets to stay out on deck and I don’t?”
“If you prove you’re smarter than the goat, I might be able to talk the men into letting you out on deck, too.”
“I told you I decided to come with you. I’m not going to escape.” At least not till we get to Ineb Hedj, thought Kepi.
“Yeah. Well, the crew sees you as a prisoner. And I’m less than convinced about you.” Menes handed Kepi a cloth satchel. “Open the leaves carefully. There’s honey folded into the center of one of them. I’m not trusting you with another jar.”
Kepi looked at the goat. The god Set was known to come in many forms: a hippo, a croc, even a pig. But most of all, he walked around with the head of a goat. Maybe she could frighten Menes into letting her out of the basket. “The god Set is going to protect us,” she said boldly.
Lights on the Nile Page 6