by Max Overton
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tausret speaks:
I have written the ransom letter and Seren Achish has sent it off. Now all that remains is to wait and hope that my father will pay. The letter was read by the Seren's scribe, so I had to watch what I said. I had to talk of Ti as my sister, and though this will no doubt puzzle my father at first, I hope that his advisors will help him to see the truth of it. I fear that when he discerns the truth he will only send gold for my return, leaving Ti to her fate. I tried to intimate that I would not leave without her, but I know I have no power or decision. If my father pays the gold for my ransom but not for Ti's, I can curse and scream all I like and refuse to leave, but the Seren will merely bind me and deliver me to my father like a sack of barley. What shreds of my dignity that still cling to me will be gone.
I am presupposing that the king will pay my ransom. I am not the daughter of his body and I have ever been a nuisance. It is entirely possible that he will hold a thousand deben in fine gold to be too high a price to pay to bring back a princess when there must be a dozen others (admittedly less well-born) that could marry my brother/cousin Seti and be his queen. It has been discussed, I know, and the king has told me I can choose my husband, but I have to be free and in Men-nefer if I am to choose, and first the king must ransom me.
Well, we have twenty days to wait, and I refuse to contemplate my fate if the gold does not arrive. I know the act by which men and women take pleasure, how could I not when living in the palace where few doors are shut and fewer bolted? I have wandered into a bedroom as a child and seen men and women engaged in copulation. They thought nothing of being observed, even by the ever-present servants, and I thought nothing of the sight. Even among the peasants it is a commonplace, I am told, so the act of sex is of no great importance, yet I am filled with apprehension.
Most people I have known enjoy the act whilst bathed in love for each other. Even prostitutes do it willingly, and for reward, but to be forced to the act, having no choice in the matter, fills me with revulsion. Certainly, it is not the fate one expects for a royal princess. Still, it is a fate I have brought upon myself. I can blame no one else and indeed, Ti tried to dissuade me from this reckless adventure. Now she will share my fate and the knowledge fills me with despondency.
* * *
Five days have passed, and my letter must by now be in the hands of my father, but we have heard nothing. I hoped that the herald that delivered the letter to our camp would have returned with news that the king was gathering the gold, but he has not reappeared. It is possible some mischance befell him and he never even arrived. If that is the case then there is no hope, for another letter will leave too little time remaining.
We are housed comfortably enough here in the Kaftor city of Ashkelon. Did I not say? The retreat of the Sea Peoples continued and the tribe of Seren Achish sought refuge in one of their cities. We are housed together in a mud brick residence near the eastern wall of the city, and we even have a Kaftor woman to cater for us. Her name is Rahb (I think), an old woman with a toothless mouth set in a wrinkled brown face and framed by lanky grey hair. She is kindly enough though, and looks after our immediate needs, where our male guards cannot. Our initial captors remain our jailers, Rath and Zeben, the charioteers. The older of them, Rath, feels the slight in being made a simple guard over women, and remains aloof, but Zeben, being younger and attracted to a certain young woman in his care, does not seem to mind his duty. In fact, I think he enjoys it, as I found to my surprise one evening, when I walked in upon Zeben and Ti-ament in an embrace.
They hurriedly parted, and made nothing of their proximity, but later Ti-ament came to me and, after making sure we could not be overheard, said, "Zeben may help us escape."
I looked at her, wanting to see if she was just trying to raise my spirits or had some real hope. "What do you mean?"
"Just that. He might be able to help us get out of here."
"Why would he do that?"
Ti grinned and blushed. "He has fallen in love with me."
"Ti, he's a Kaftor, an enemy!"
She shrugged. "And a handsome young man."
"I hadn't noticed." In truth, I had, but had not thought beyond that, being more concerned with whether my father would pay both ransoms.
"Anyway, he's in love with me and doesn't want to see me become a camp prostitute, so he says he'll smuggle me out of the city. You too, of course."
"How?"
Ti shook her head. "He doesn't know yet."
The tiny bud of hope that had been growing inside me shrivelled and died. It was probably just an idea put forward by a young man intent on seducing a young girl. No doubt he hoped to enjoy her before all his fellow soldiers got their chance. Then another thought occurred to me.
"You're not in love with him, are you?"
A nod and a smile.
"Oh, Ti, he's an enemy soldier. He's only telling you these things in the hope that you'll allow him to...to...you know."
"Perhaps, but why is he still talking of escape afterward?"
"After?"
"Two days ago, Zeben spread a blanket for me and I joined him in love."
I stared at this young girl who had so casually engaged in the act of love. I have to admit there was a little envy too, for she had a least enjoyed herself with a man, whereas my first taste of sex would be a rape and undoubtedly unpleasant. I shook my head, not knowing what to say.
The next night, Zeben slipped into our room after Rahb had gone to bed. I lay on my straw bed and listened in the dark while Ti and Zeben explored each other once more with soft cries of delight and subdued giggles. Later, I could hear them whispering together for a long time and must have fallen asleep, for the next thing I knew, someone had grasped my shoulder and was shaking me awake.
"Wake up, Tau."
I sat up, dimly making out the figure of my friend crouched beside me. "What's wrong?" I listened and could just make out the snuffling snores of the old woman outside our room.
"Zeben has a plan," she whispered. "But he wants to know if you have feelings for his friend Rath."
I shook my head emphatically, and then realised she could not see me. "I am a royal princess, Ti. I can scarcely...besides, I do not love him."
"I told Zeben that was likely the case, so he asks if you can offer Rath some inducement to aid our escape."
"I have already offered gold and land," I said, "but he didn't seem interested."
"I did not know that," spoke a deep voice from the darkness, and I realised Zeben was still in the room. "I will speak with Rath further. Your offer is genuine, Lady Tausret? You would give him gold or land?"
"Yes, and you also, if you can get us back to Kemet, or at least to the king's camp."
"I can do it, with Rath's help."
"When?"
"Soon. I am waiting for something to happen in Ashkelon, something that will help us slip away unnoticed."
"What?"
I could not see him, but I could hear the amusement in his voice. "Are all Kemetu women so curious? I will tell you when it is time. Now, I must go before I am missed." Ti moved away and I heard them murmuring together. A crack of light from the doorway, a shadow, and he was gone.
Two days passed and Zeben came to see us again. He sent the old woman out on a pretext before speaking. "Lady Tausret, do you swear on the gods of Kemet that if Rath and I manage to deliver you safely to your father, you will give to us land and gold?"
"Rath has agreed?" I asked.
"Yes. Do you swear? I must have your assurance."
I nodded. "I swear on all the gods of Kemet that if you deliver us safely to my father, both you and Rath will be rewarded with land and gold." I hesitated and then, not wanting to deceive him, however innocently, added, "You understand that I have little wealth of my own and that your reward will come from the king, at his discretion?"
Zeben nodded glumly. "A father would be grateful to the men who returned his daughters safely though, wouldn't
he?"
"I will argue for you," I assured him.
"It will have to be enough. Be ready tomorrow night."
He was back the next night, apparently drunk, and armed with a jug of wine. The old woman remonstrated with him but after a while accepted a cup of wine. Another followed, and though Zeben appeared to drink from the jug too, none of the wine crossed his lips. Presently, Rahb fell asleep and Zeben shook off all signs of drunkenness, and I became aware it was all an act.
"The wine is drugged. She will sleep until dawn, by which time we must be far away."
"How do we escape?" I demanded.
Zeben smiled. "Come, curious one, and you will see."
He led us out into a deserted street and straight into the house next door, ascending a staircase to the flat roof. The city around us was in darkness, though I saw many lights toward the city centre, together with skirls of wild music and raised voices drifting on the breeze.
"What is happening?"
"It is the feast day of the god Dagon," Zeben said. "The one day of the year when people's attentions will be fixed on the ceremonies in the temple. With luck, nobody will be looking too closely at the walls."
I craned my neck and looked up at the tall battlements of Ashkelon, black in the faint starlight. "We have to climb up there?"
"Just follow."
Zeben led us across the roof and into a darkened doorway. Just inside stood a small clay pot. He picked it up and gently blew into the opening, a flare of flame answering him. By the light of this tiny handheld fire, he guided us through the inner rooms of the wall, to a small opening. He poked his head out and looked around, not neglecting to look up in case some alert guard happened to be looking over. There was nobody, so he set the fire pot down and picked up a coil of knotted rope, securing one end to a heavy wooden chest and throwing the other end out of the opening.
"You expect us to climb down that?" I asked. "In the dark?"
"It'll be fun," Ti-ament said. "I've climbed and slid down ropes on my father's boat. And in the dark you won't be able to see how far you can fall."
"Wonderful."
"I'll go first," Zeben said. "It's not far, ten or twelve cubits, so I can break your fall if you slip. Just keep quiet whatever happens."
He slipped out of the opening and disappeared, though the rope creaked and swayed under his weight. A few moments later he hissed for us to follow, and Ti went next, hand over hand down the rope. Then it was my turn and I gulped, lowering myself feet first into the void, keeping a death grip on the rope. I eased over the lip and my full weight plucked at my hands. I slipped and the rope burned them so unexpectedly I let go and fell with a muffled squeak onto Zeben, who collapsed beneath me.
I lay half stunned for a moment, sure that I must be dead, and then I felt him move beneath me and a hand pushed at my bare thigh beneath my dress. I scrambled off and backed away in case he tried anything disrespectful, but he only chuckled and took Ti into his arms.
"Rath should be here...shh, I can...yes, here he is."
A horse snorted in the darkness, and sand crunched beneath wood as a chariot emerged from the gloom. Rath was at the reins of a heavy war chariot, and he drew it alongside us.
"Any trouble?" he asked.
"None. You have everything?"
"Enough, this is not a pleasure ride."
Zeben handed Ti up into the chariot, and then me, jumping up behind us and pressing close. He gripped the rail as Rath turned the heavy chariot and eased it away into the darkness at walking pace. Nothing was said for a long time, and we continued our slow pace. As my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, lit only by the stars in the body of Nut, I saw that we were bumping over trackless desert, necessitating our creeping progress.
"Wouldn't it be faster to use a road?" I whispered.
"Undoubtedly, Lady Tausret," Zeben replied, "but the roads are patrolled close to the city. We'll reach a road later and we can pick up our pace."
It was close to dawn when the heavy chariot trundled onto a rutted road and turned east. Rath whipped the horses into a faster pace with the rising sun full in our faces, but Zeben kept turning around to stare back down the road.
"They will pursue us," he said when I asked him what he was looking for.
"How will they know where we've gone?"
"Is it not obvious that you would try to return to Kemet? There are two roads, one lies south to the forts on the border, and the other runs east toward the battlefield. We hope that they will deem the southern road more likely."
We continued through the morning and into the early afternoon before Rath and Zeben felt safe enough to stop. We rested the horses and watered them, taking a little plain refreshment ourselves. Rath told us we were close to where the battle had been fought and with any luck we might be close to the Kemetu camp by nightfall, provided the strength of the horses held up.
The sun sank behind us throwing our misshapen shadow ahead as if it was eager to reach the safety of the camp. I became very tired as the day wore on and found room to sit on the floor of the chariot and close my eyes, though the rumble of the wheels and the jolting prevented sleep. After a bit, Ti joined me and we held each other close.
Zeben murmured something and Rath cracked the whip, trying to force a little extra effort from tired horses.
"What is it?" I asked.
"We are followed. No, stay down," he added as I started to rise. "Two men in a chariot will be less suspicious than two men with women."
A little later, he said, "They know. Rath, we should leave the road."
"It provides the best surface for travel."
"For them as for us. As long as we do not strike soft sand, we would do better off the road. A heavy chariot can handle rocks better than our light pursuers."
"They will still catch us."
Rath turned off the road and urged the horses to one last effort, but looking back through Zeben's legs, I could see four or five light chariots behind us, steadily growing closer. I felt bitter at the thought that we were so close to safety and would now be recaptured. I offered up a muttered prayer to Bes, the god of good luck, offering him a sacrifice of a bull if he would smile upon us, but still our pursuers drew closer.
Then Zeben cried out, "By Photnia, the Baal of Fortune, there are the Kemetu!"
I knelt and peered over the rail of the bouncing chariot, over the foam-flecked haunches of our struggling horses and saw, tiny in the distance, a dozen chariots speeding toward us. I cried out my thanks to Bes, but my joy died in my throat when I looked back to see how close were the Kaftor chariots behind us.
A shadow flicked by, and another, and then one close enough that I could see what it was, an arrow. We were unarmed, having left everything behind that would slow us, and anyway, how could we hope to fight and flee at the same time? Rath drove on, shoulders hunched as he awaited the arrow that would spell his death. Zeben, bless him, crouched low over us, shielding Ti with his body, and partially covering me too. The arrows came nearer, and one thumped into the wooden floor of the chariot, a hand's breadth from my foot. I prayed again to Bes and I heard shouts behind me as now the Kaftor, who had focussed solely on us, now had to reckon with the fast-approaching Kemetu chariots.
One last effort and the Kaftor were close around us and I glimpsed a tall man with a spear, preparing to cast it, then he dropped the spear and clutched at his throat when a shaft sprouted amidst fountaining blood. Shouts rang out in Kaftor and Kemetu, and our chariot slowed and stopped. I looked, and saw the Kaftor in full retreat, the Kemetu running them down and slaughtering them.
There was blood staining the floor of our chariot, and Zeben knelt, keening his grief, his friend Rath lying slack-limbed in his arms. A Kemetu arrow protruded from the stricken man's chest.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Year 4 of Baenre Merenptah
Tausret was aching to step outside the confines of the palace. For the last several months she had been confined to the great royal building
at Men-nefer, and while it was luxuriously appointed and servants waited on her hand and foot, she was seriously curtailed in her activities. Her days were spent in the Women's Quarter, along with some of the surviving wives and concubines of Usermaatre, moved here from the palace at Per-Ramesses, and half a hundred unmarried daughters and grand-daughters of the previous king. Baenre Merenptah's women were there too, wives and concubines, and daughters by the latter. A daughter of a concubine was always considered of less value than a daughter of a wife. There were no surviving daughters of Merenptah's wives now, Isetnofret, daughter of Khaemwaset's daughter of the same name, having died of a sickness a few years before. Tausret, adopted daughter of the king and daughter of the king's brother Sethi by his beloved wife, was the only true royal princess of marriageable age. She was closely guarded now, and was being instructed in the duties of becoming a wife.
The princess had little in common with the other women in the Quarter. They were content to while away the hours, days and years in pleasurable pursuits like eating, drinking, playing with a variety of pets or gossiping by the ornamental fishponds and fountains. Only one royal woman had time for her, and Tausret wished she would leave her alone like the rest. Many of the women regarded Tausret as an oddity, especially after her capture by the Kaftor and subsequent escape. Whispers had circulated that she had been raped by the barbarian enemy, even as had her companion at the time. What decent Kemetu man would have her now, they whispered, casting knowing looks in her direction. After all, she had been intended as the wife for Prince Seti, yet why had the king delayed? She was already long past the age when most women took a husband, and no announcement came from the king. There just had to be some substance behind the rumours.
Tausret cared nothing for the gossip. As far as she was concerned, her life was more than just a preparation for marriage and the subsequent bearing of children. She knew that she was to marry Seti, or at least that had been the intention before her adventure, but the king had been cool toward her ever since she was rescued.