“Lorentis, tell us about life in the royal palace,” said Kiya when a pause in conversation ensued.
Lorentis was reluctant to become the centre of attention and tried to demur, but the cries of encouragement from the others around the table persuaded her to speak up. “As you know, I’m a handmaiden to Princess Abana. As far as the palace is concerned we handmaidens are, other than the menials such as servants and slaves, the lowest of the low. Just about everybody in the palace has some grand title or fantastic job-description, even if all they do is stand there with a towel while Pharaoh takes a piss. Yes, even the royals must undertake some regular functions!
“As handmaiden my main job is to hang around the princess and wait for when she ever wants anything. As servants do the things like fetching and carrying, what we mainly do is provide company and advice that is hopefully not too brainlessly subservient to be of any use. We’re like officially-appointed friends. Abana is about fifty years old, married and has six children, so she’s usually providing me with advice about life rather than the other way around, although I’m able to provide her with a different insight about the world and what others are thinking. I know that it’s unusual for a princess to marry; they’re not supposed to marry below their own station, which is why half-brothers often marry their half-sisters, but she’s a favourite of Ramesses and when she fell in love she pestered him for years until he let her marry the son of a Nomarch.
“The other handmaiden is Mi, who is from Maidum. She’s not young, about twenty, but quite pretty. I don’t know why she’s not married, but she’s certainly enjoying her time in the palace. She is in her second twelve-month engagement and is cutting an absolute swathe through the courtiers. In fact her social calendar is so full we only see her for a couple of hours in the early afternoon.”
“And what of the royals themselves?” demanded Netjerikhet.
“Well of course, as a palace functionary, my lips are sealed…”
This evoked howls of protest. “But seriously, by and large they’re a family of good people. They are in the main courteous and respect their staff. Abana rules her own household and is a clever, well-educated and considerate woman. Her brothers and sisters are too numerous to record, but most do good and valued service for the kmet. Some are in the army, as you will know. Some fill official positions in the administration or as priests. Of course, out of well over a hundred progeny Ramesses has his share of self-opinionated and spoiled brats, and even a few vicious psychopaths like Ra-em hotep, but they’re few and far between.”
There was a general indrawn breath on the hearing of her verdict of the late and apparently unlamented prince, and a brief hiatus in conversation before Werienptah asked with keen interest, “Is it true that Ramesses has a harem with five hundred women, each more beautiful than the next?”
Lorentis smiled “He has a harem, yes,” she replied. “How many women, wives and consorts, he has who live there I don’t know. Probably he doesn’t. Certainly a lot. Perhaps one hundred, and also of course their attendants so there may in total be perhaps as many as you say. Pharaoh has received the gift of many women, mainly foreigners. Most are beautiful, but others are favoured only by their family connections and political importance. But most of the women in the harem are his unmarried daughters, grand-daughters and their female attendants. The harem usually stays in the palace at Pi-Ramesses and when he’s away Ramesses is usually only accompanied by half a dozen or so of his wives and preferred concubines. After all he is eighty years old, so he’ll not be as vigorous as he once was!”
“What’s life like in the harem?” asked Werienptah, seemingly determined to rouse out every sordid detail he could.
“Boring,” replied Lorentis. “Perhaps as you said five hundred women all told, cooped up together all the time. Few have official duties to keep them busy or give them something to do. They spend their time gossiping, reading poetry or going out shopping. It’s a really intense atmosphere with lots of cliques, bitchiness and cat-fights about seemingly unimportant things.”
“Do they go out much?”
“Oh, yes. The harem is the place where they live and where as prized possessions they’re cared for and protected. They can go out, with suitable escorts, to the local market or have picnics on the river and so on. The market at Pi-Ramesses is hardly worth visiting, though. It’s just a town market, not like the grand bazaars at Memphis and Thebes where you can shop until you drop. The Eunuchs are fun; they take both themselves and their jobs so seriously, and they’re so easy to tease. Very loyal and caring people, though.”
“One thing I have never understood is the intermarriage of the royal family and the close relationships between them,” said Nikolas. “I know that amongst your people, including the noble families, marriage between close relations such as brothers and sisters, or fathers and daughters, does not take place. But in the royal family it seems to be the rule rather than the exception.”
Werienptah answered. “There are two reasons. Firstly, only a member of the royal family can rule. The blood royal is carried by the women and so a potential pharaoh should preferably be born of a mother who is herself royal, and her children may have the chance to rule. If they marry outside the close family that increases the number of potential claimants to the throne, which is discouraged. A prince, or a high member in the royal family born of a non-royal consort, will marry a half-sister to strengthen his position in the bloodline and that of the children he will have. Similarly, a prince will marry one of his half-sisters to strengthen his own position in the royal family.
“Secondly, while a prince may take a non-royal wife or consort, and may have several wives at once, a princess of course can only take one husband because all the world must know who is the father of any child. A princess may not marry below her own station in life. That means she can only marry a prince; one of her half-brothers, or sometimes her father, often the Pharaoh. This situation is dictated by genealogy, which fortunately doesn’t apply to us non-royals.”
“It sound a little like breeding horses,” commented Nikolas. “What about them marrying a prince of another land?”
Werienptah shook his head. “No. Never. That would mean that in the future a ruler of that land could claim a right to rule Egypt, through his descent from the royal bloodline. Egyptian princesses do not marry foreigners. Ever. Pharaoh, or a prince, may marry foreign princesses for political reasons but no female of his family will ever marry a foreigner.”
The whole idea of fathers marrying their own children and fathering their own grandchildren still seemed incredibly tacky to Nikolas but seemed to make perfect sense to the Egyptians and didn’t seem to offend their sense of propriety, at least when it involved only the royal family.
Food and drink continued to flow to the table in a never-ending stream. Eventually, Netjerikhet fell backwards off his chair and lay face up in a stupor on the ground. Nikolas was satisfied that Lorentis would be safe in Pamose’s company as he was imbibing slowly tonight, and he rose unsteadily saying, “Kiya, I think I could do with some assistance to our chamber. Would you care to help?” With apparent reluctance Kiya rose and took his arm, steadying his way towards the house. Werienptah looked on with regret at his lost prize.
“Why do you drink so much? You know that you’ll suffer so much for it in the morning?” she asked.
“Ah! But it seemed such a good idea at the time!” mumbled Nikolas as he fell face-first onto the bed still wearing his sandals.
T T T T
‘Kiya is clearly clairvoyant,’ thought Nikolas next morning as he lay listening to the hammers pounding in his head and reluctantly decided he was likely to live. The object of his thoughts had risen and dressed. She was humming, seemingly to Nikolas very loudly, in the corner, attending to whatever women do when their men are suffering serious illness. The cooks downstairs seemed to be making an inordinate amount of noise in their preparations for the morning meal.
Holding his head to ensure that it
didn’t fall off, Nikolas asked Kiya to fetch his special draught of herbs used for such occasions to reduce the effects of the headache and settle his stomach; willow-bark, chamomile, comfrey, coriander and mint. A little later, about mid-morning, Nikolas was feeling slightly better and ventured out into the villa. Costly and ornately carved furniture and artifacts decorated the public rooms; stone pillars supported the roof in the larger rooms, with columns and walls plastered and painted with either geometric patterns or friezes with a variety of themes.
Windows and doors had by now been closed against the rising heat outside, making the inside of the villa quite dark.
Several of the guests were seated at a large table in the formal dining room. Nikolas handed another sachet of herbs to an attendant and asked that they be steeped in a small pot of boiling water. As he waited for his hangover cure to arrive, Nikolas enquired after Netjerikhet and was told he had not yet appeared, still being ‘indisposed’. Nikolas instructed the major-domo that when ready half the herbal tea should be sent to Netjerikhet’s rooms, with his compliments.
Lorentis, Tenentesamun and Kiya sat chattering loudly at one end of the table, helping themselves voraciously to the breakfast provided. The men sat morosely at the other end, picking at their food. The tea arrived and Nikolas drank deeply to overcome the dehydrating effects of the wine the previous evening and to receive the benefit provided by the herbs. Not long afterwards Netjerikhet arrived and thanked Nikolas for the courtesy of the remedy.
“No problem,” assured Nikolas. “As I helped you catch the ailment the least I can do is help with the cure!” Nikolas provided the recipe to the major-domo. Clearly this was a household that should stock large quantities of the remedy. “When we return to Memphis, I’ll also send you an amphora of my best Rhodian red. I find the better the wine, the less the hangover!” That was indeed Nikolas’ finding. Good quality wine was never gulped down by the connoisseur and the slower rate of intake reduced the overall effects.
Also, it never hurt to promote your products, even as free samples.
“You’re going to Thebes, right?” said Netjerikhet. “Well, at this time of the year my family’s townhouse near the Luxor temple is empty. You might as well use it. That’ll give the damn servants something to do to earn their bread while the family is in the north for the hot season.”
Nikolas accepted the kind offer with alacrity as a private home would make an excellent base for their activities. ‘My anticipated generosity has already turned a profit’ he thought.
Netjerikhet arranged chariots to transport Nikolas’ party back to the ‘Lions Lair’. After the short trip Nikolas sent a runner to the Breath of Bubastis to check progress. Captain Hunnifer’s reply was that he expected an imminent change in the wind and that the party should pack ready for immediate departure.
The next morning the wind had indeed swung to the west. Although not entirely favourable it was sufficient to allow slow progress upriver and Nikolas’ party resumed its journey upstream.
CHAPTER 4 – MEMPHIS
Year 52. Month Ipi-Ipi. 3rd Shomu.
Late June 1223 BC
Meanwhile back at Memphis Kahun had spent several days going over the files of the secret-police accumulated during the brief investigation. He’d been given the services of several scribes to annotate the files and two assistants; Quenymin was a member of the secret-police and Userhet was a junior officer in the army. Both were young men of considerable intelligence, strong family connections and burning ambition.
On reviewing the files Kahun concluded that, while the secret-police may have gone through the witnesses like an unforgiving herd of hippopotamuses, they had at least been exceedingly thorough hippos. He said, “Well, Prince Ra-em hotep had been meeting with a number of officials and nobles from the South in the week or so before his death. Given his official duties at Aswan and his imminent departure for the South that’s not really a surprise. What do you two think of it?”.
Quenymin paused for a moment and pointed at several lines on a piece of papyrus in front of him. “Here; these two have no apparent relation to his official duties. Sennedjem and Bakenmut.
Also, I wouldn’t have expected a messenger from Jarha, the Iry biAw Manager of Mines at Aswan, to have been given a personal and private interview. These are discrepancies that we may look at.”
“Are they all still in Memphis?” asked Kahun.
“Sennedjem and Bakenmut certainly,” answered Quenymin. “Only the gods know who the messenger from Jarha even was, let alone where he is!”
“Can we put spies in their households or seek informers?”
“We can try. I’ll put some of our ‘sources’ on it and see what we come up with,” replied Quenymin.
“What about those who dined with Prince Ra-em hotep that night? Could they have poisoned his food or drink?”
“Lord Horwebbefer, Lord Wahibra, Shoshenq and Neskhons? Unlikely. A Nomarch, the first son of another Nomarch, a senior palace official and a Senior Priest of Aten? Even if they wanted him dead they wouldn’t do it themselves; it would be inevitable that one of the others or one of the servants would see their actions. There’s no report of any suspicious action by any of them. It just appears it was a working dinner.”
“What about the doctors, the swnw? And the ibeh tooth doctor? What have we come up with there?” asked Kahun.
This time Userhet replied, after briefly consulting his notes. “Pa-ra-em-hat is the wer swnw and a swnw khet. That is, he’s the chief doctor Royal Chief of Doctors of the palace. He’s thirty-seven years old, born in the South at Edfu and studied at the Pr anx ‘House of Life’ at Luxor and at the Temple of Sekhmet in that city. He’s well regarded in both his professional and private life; married with three children. He was sent by Ramesses to the Hittite capital Hattusa and returned four years ago when he was then appointed to his current position. Like most swnw he uses magic. The men watching him report that he regularly sees Hittites and has them as his guests at home several times a week.
“Dehuti-necht, the chest doctor, has a more ‘rationalist’ approach and also practices surgery. He’s forty-three and from the Faiyum. He studied at the Temple of Sekhmet at Memphis. He’s a well-known pederast, likes his boys about eleven or twelve years old. Treats them well and is quite generous. He’s something of a recluse. Rarely sees anybody other than professionally. He’s good at astrology and interpreting dreams and frequently reads the stars for the royal family. Not unexpectedly he has a strong interest in astronomy and is something of an authority on that subject.
“Ausas, the swnw irty eye doctor, we don’t have under observation, nor Paser the ibeh tooth doctor. Neither were treating Prince Ra-em hotep, and wouldn’t have provided him with any medicine unless they were treating him. I have their details if you want? No?”
“I don’t like the idea of having the Royal Chief of Doctors close friends with foreigners,” commented Kahun. “How friendly was Prince Ra-em hotep with the Hittites before he died?”
“He hated them. And the Canaanites, Mitannis, Nubians, Libyans – and everybody else. He was strongly opposed the proposed marriage of Ramesses to the Hittite princess. He was a real xenophobe and wanted them all banned from entering the Two Kingdoms of the kmet, and the Libyans already here sending home – even those who have been here for ten generations,” replied Userhet.
Kahun gave a grunt at hearing this further complicating piece of information. After a pause he asked, “What was his religious position?”
Quenymin replied “Apparently no problems. He seemed orthodox, although he wasn’t given any religious functions himself which is unusual for somebody close to the throne; this may be a hint that he wasn’t trusted by Pharaoh in that regard. Based on the reports of the secret-police he does seem to have spent quite a lot of time with priests from the Temples of Aten.”
Kahun gave a scowl at this indication of heresy and reminder of the reign of the Amarna heretics under Pharaoh Akhenaten. “So included in the
list of suspects would be the ambassadors of all the foreign countries we have relations with and the members of our very extensive Libyan community. The Hittites in particular had both motive and opportunity. Possibly also the priests of Amun. What about Ra-em hotep’s sexual proclivities?”
“We have identified eleven women who have in the last three months been forced to have sexual relations with the prince, whose husbands or other members of their families are members of the Court or officials. In the same period were thirty-seven girls who were abducted and raped by Ra-em hotep and his guards. Four died. Most were snatched off the streets but five were children of minor officials. Most of the court officials probably had contacts that would allow them to get somebody into the palace kitchen,” said Quenymin.
Userhet commented, “If I’d known what he was doing I’d have joined the queue to kill him. Whoever did it deserves a reward, not punishment.”
“As Nikolas said, we seem to have almost half of Egypt with a motive to murder the prince. Keep digging,” Kahun instructed.
T T T T
Over the next two days all that Kahun came up with was a headache from examining the cramped writing of the reports.
At the next staff meeting Quenymin reported progress.
“Instructions have been sent to the Aswan office to penetrate Jarha’s household, but that will take time. Here in Memphis Sennedjem’s house wasn’t at first able to be penetrated. However, there has recently been a fortunate ‘accident’ to the doorman at Sennedjem’s house. Somehow he managed to get in a brawl and break his leg, so now we’ve been able to place an agent in that household. That cost us just ten copper deben to hire the thugs, so it was cheap at the price. Bakenmut’s household is certainly compromised; we have a door porter belonging to the secret-police now employed there and the head-waiter has accepted a bribe of a place at the royal palace if suitable information is forthcoming. We still haven’t been able to get anybody into the households of Pa-ra-em-hat or Dehuti-necht. They’re both quite modest. One has just three servants and the other four.”
Murder in the Palace: A Nikolas of Kydonia Mystery Page 11