Shiri (20 page)

XII

The hunt began before dawn. Pentephres had come to him in a red rage. “She’s gone! The whore has run!” Josef leapt from the bed with a start. S
he couldn’t have run. She wouldn’t be fool enough.
Pentephres and old Hapu beside him had barged into their bedroom and Josef could hear Akil and Jafar cursing in the common room. Tjuya tugged the blanket high about her neck, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “Shiri has run?”

Josef seemed almost to lose the run of himself then. He shoved Hapu aside and bolted for the door, pulling h
is kilt up about him as he went.
I have to get to her first.

Pentep
hres grabbed Josef as he passed. “Amaris! My sweet Amaris!” He looked heartsick. “And Yocobel, her dog-faced sister, with her.” He let Josef go. “Her doing, I’d wager. That slut has corrupted my innocent flower and turned her against me. And we, to give her to the Godfires this very week!”

“Amaris?” Josef
seemed to visibly relax.

“They took advantage of the confusion amidst the arrival of your Memphite herds and slipped out unnoticed,” Hapu
said as he hurried after them.

Pentephres led the way, wringing his hands and gi
bbering to nobody in particular. “My Amaris, my darling unblemished Amaris, my rose without thorns, why do you betray me?”

“Mayhap she heard of your plans to burn her on the altar,” Josef
said.

“High honour to be found worthy of the Godfires,” Hapu informed him sagely. “T
he fool wench should be flattered that it was her who was chosen.”

“Aye, no doubt the girl is too simple minded to grasp that.” Josef
said. He motioned for Akil and Jafar to take a chariot, a half dozen had been rushed to the great square before the temple. He mounted the lead vehicle himself, Pentephres at his side. The bloodhounds were baying and pulling their keeper forward, and men were laughing now, the excitement of the hunt coursing through the air. Hapu was quick to grab the third chariot while the rest were still being argued over.

“She must be chastised
with the flail for this,” Pentephres said more to himself than his companion. Josef lashed the whip and the chariot bolted forward. The old priest stumbled but managed to hold on. “But would that be enough?” He shook his head. “No, no, I must teach her obedience anew before she goes to the fires.” He said grimly as Josef lashed the steeds harder still.

They began to draw away from the rest as they thundered through the streets and out the Sun Gate. The dogs had bolted due east, clear enough the direction they
’d taken then. Josef whipped his steeds a third time and left the hounds behind. “Her mouth,” Pentephres decided. “Yes, that’s it. I will have pleasure from her mouth. Thus will I chastise the child and teach her the wages of treachery.” He seemed a little uncertain. “The gods will still deem her a maiden, yes? It would not foul the sacrifice?” Josef glanced at him briefly, but did not see fit to argue the matter.

The sun was breaking upon a vivid sky of purple and gold when Josef saw them. Two black shadows cruelly silhouetted against the rising god.
They had not gotten far.
He felt a dull ache in his heart as he watched them vainly attempt to run for cover behind some scrappy bushes. It was pathetic really; they’d taken the eastern trail, direct towards the far distant Wildlands. But city raised, and innocent of the wider world they had no true knowledge of the harsh vastness of the Memphite Desert. The god of Heliopolis made a pitiless enemy, and with no mounts and only as much water as they could carry, there was little hope the pair would survive beyond a few days.

Pentephres holler
ed and pointed when he saw them. “The Three That Are One marks them out!” He looked over his shoulder beckoning to those following, the rest were far behind by now but hard on the slaves’ trail all the same.

The chariot tore past the pair, rounding on them in a cloud of dust. Amaris screamed and dashed wildly for the open sands. Josef pulled on the reins and the snorting horses circled wide, cutting her off while with surprising agility, the high priest leapt from the vehicle and grabbed for her.
Yocobel came at him then and Pentephres met her with his staff. He thrust it hard against her stomach, doubling her over. A brief entreaty to
Ra
and
Horus
of the horizon followed before his staff found the slave’s back and sent her sprawling, half conscious. A sandaled foot to the gut and he was done with that one. The old man was breathing hard now, but he moved on her young sister with intent. The child turned and ran from him, but shrieked again as the high priest’s heir loomed up in front of her, mace in hand and fire in his eyes.

Amaris fell to her knees before him,
sobbing and begging at his feet. “P ... please, m’lord, I’m sorry, m’lord ... please ... please ... don’t send me to the fires, m’lord.” Quivering lips found Josef’s toes and the Memphite sands drank salty tears. She felt a rough hand on her shoulder, her master. She looked for Yocobel.
She was bent over a few yards behind him, coughing, retching, crying.

Her master was red-faced and panting, and he was angry, his fingers dug deep into her shoulder. “Good ... good work, Yuya, my son ... I feared we
’d have to give chase a while longer.” He looked down at his sniffling flower, more beautiful and perfect now than ever, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, her face a sweet mask of fear. Pentephres stared deep into those twin pools. “Beautiful, innocent, and timid as fawn,” he whispered.

She made to sta
nd but he kept her on her knees. “D … don’t hurt Yocobel,” she sobbed. “... it was ... it was my idea I ... I didn’t even want her to come.”

“
Stay your tongue, child.” He blessed her and caressed her cheek gently. “Sweet beautiful child, you leave me little choice, you have strayed from the righteous path and now I must cleanse you.” He put a stubby finger to her lips. “Open,” he said huskily. Reluctantly her lips parted just a little and he slipped his finger inside her mouth. Ever so slowly he pushed it back and forth between her lips, staring down at her, almost as if lost in a trance. Finally he dragged his eyes away and glanced briefly at Josef. “Such a sacrifice,” he said shaking his head.

Josef looked on as the priest slid
his free hand inside his robes. “I must chastise you, my love. I would not have had it so. I would have had you go unto the fires innocent of such things, but now you must learn. Now you must be cleansed of your villainy.” Pentephres loosed the slightest of moans as he worked beneath his robes. “It ... it is for your own good you understand? I could not ... live with the fear that the gods might find you unworthy and cast you aside.”

Slowly he flopped out his manhood
and edged it closer to her face. He rubbed it against her cheek, moistening it with her tears. “‘Ere the week is out I will have you trained in certain new arts, and the Three That Are One will love you all the better for it.” He turned to Josef with a grin. “Oh yes, I can feel it in my bones, Yuya, Heliopolis will wax mighty once more. The gods will rejoice, and thank us for our devotion. They will thank us for my sweet Amaris.”

He s
troked his manhood slowly. “Poor child, I see it now. You have been corrupted. Your sister’s doing no doubt, she was the same and worse at your age. She did all in her power to seduce me and now you ... you seek to do the same.” He stroked himself more quickly now. “Look at you, not even a woman grown yet still you seek to have pleasure of me. You think I have not seen you give me eyes? You think I have not seen you flaunt yourself before me? Did you learn such arts from the whores of the markets?”

Amaris sobbed h
arder now, barely able to speak. “Please, m’lord ... I ... I don’t give you eyes ... I-”

“
No! I will not hear your lies, slut!” Pentephres moaned loudly as finally he coaxed himself to full size. He looked down at her again and smiled this time. “Yet perhaps ... perhaps even now I will help you. I will help purify you of your foul, lusting thoughts. I will do what I can to satiate them. You force me to it unwillingly you understand? But I shall not abandon you at this final juncture. I shall let you take me into you as is your want, Amaris, and then perhaps you will go unto the gods without your impure desires spoiling the sacrifice.” The old man brushed his fingers through her thick curls before moving his hand to the back of her head and guiding her reluctant lips towards him.

Josef glanced over his shoulder; they would be on them at any moment,
but not just yet.
He took a step towards the pair, his fingers tightening about the mace, his gaze settling on his father in law. “Forgive me, Father, but the gods will have to wait.” He swung the mace with brutal force and it struck home with a sickening crunch. The faintest of grunts escaped the old priest’s lips as he fell to the sand, the side of his skull caved in. Amaris shrieked. She scurried backwards, unable to drag her eyes from the dead man as dark, sticky gore oozed from what was once his head. Josef tossed the mace back into the chariot and all at once the others were on them.

He ran to them.
“Hapu! Hapu! Fly! Fly like the wind! The high priest has fallen from the chariot!”

Hapu gawped at
the body, too shocked for words. “Fly damn you, fly!” Josef shouted. “He may yet live! Wake Solon. If anyone can save him he can!”

With a nod Hapu pulled at the reins and lashed his steeds like he
’d never lashed them before. The chariot’s wheels churned deep into the earth, tossing sand and rock high in the air as it careened around, the priest struggling to keep the horses under control.

“Akil, Jafar, to me!
” Josef ran to the high priest’s stricken body. “We must staunch the bleeding!” All was a whirl of action, Akil jumped from his vehicle and Jafar near fell over himself as he searched for something, anything that could stop the flow of blood.

Akil bent over the body and
came to the obvious conclusion. “No sawbones can heal this,” he gave Josef a curious look.

Josef sighed.
“It’s as I feared then ... he’s gone.” He stood over the body for a while before at length he turned to Akil and his wife’s
ghaffir.
“Carry him to the Sun Temple,” he said sadly, “an honour guard at your side.”

“
An honour guard of course,” Jafar said, “but it is not for us to carry him, we’re fighting men, let me fetch a brace of Habiru bulls and...”

“You would have my wife
’s father, the high priest of Heliopolis, borne by slaves? I’ll not have that for him.
You
will carry him, and be honoured that I see you fit to do so.”

Josef turned to the runaways
as Jafar grumbled and went about his orders. The child was open-mouthed, her expression somewhere between shock and wonder. Yocobel, still clutching her stomach, though standing somewhat more upright now, was staring at him in suspicious silence. “You two,” he said aggressively. “You will return to the city with me, I will punish you for your transgressions personally.” Akil looked up sharply at that. The slaves mounted the chariot behind Josef and with a flick of his whip they were on their way back to the Sun City.

XIII

The Sun Ring slipped on easily. Josef gazed in silence as the Godfires of the high altar burned white and his acolytes added further tinder to the flames. A word from the high priest and the acolytes withdrew, a moment later Shiri emerged from the shadows. “What now?” She said rather coldly.

Josef frowned.
She is ever cold of late.
“It’s as I said to Solon, the minor temples about this city take from our haul, and for what? We own the land they are built on, yet they give us poor tribute, how much gold that could come to the Sun Temple instead lies fallow, adorning idols of
Osiris
,
Hathor
,
Thoth
and the rest?” He stared at Shiri as he spoke, expecting her to support his words, but she said nothing. He frowned again.
Her mind is elsewhere.

Solon grunted.
“And as
I
said, I like it not. The hour is not yet ripe.”

“Religion is a business, Solon, priests no more than merchants flogging blessings and promises from their pulpits. The acolytes of the other gods can sell such wares from the
Sun Temple as easily as the rest. I mean to have but one god in Heliopolis, and the people will have but one place to worship him – here!” he pointed to the floor, “in our new temple.”

S
hiri finally seemed to hear him. “But surely it is not for you to tell folk which gods they can and can’t worship?”

Josef looked impatient. “Then tell me, Shiri, how else can we raise the funds?”

Solon’s practiced eye passed over the girl.
Has she told him yet?
She can’t keep it secret much longer.
He reached for the high priest’s arm. “But to melt the idols in the Godfires so that you can flog the metal?
Seth’s
arse, man! Do you not think word will spread beyond Heliopolis? There will be uproar, best wait and-”

“Wait?” Josef said.
“Even now the elder Pharaoh journeys home on his stretcher, his body broken but his victory complete. He drags ten thousand more of my people with him; men, women, children, wrenched from every tribe of Jezreel. If I wait, they’ll be sold and shipped to the mines of Serabit or the stone pits of the Red Mountain to toil and die in misery and pain. At best, they’ll be separated and sold to a thousand different lordlings – families and hearts torn apart forever. I cannot delay, I must have them, and I must have them now.”

“You can’t save them all, Yuya. How’s Heliopolis to support near twenty thousand Habiru? Some will have to be sacrificed for the good of the many, harsh I know, but that is simply the way the world is made.”

Shiri chewed her lip. “Then perhaps it’s time to make a new world, a better one.” Josef was right, she realised, they had to do whatever they could. This was not the time for half measures.

Solon smiled at her. “Many seek to change the world, Shiri. The wiser course is to first change themselves.” He turned back to Josef. “Make allies, rise in fame and glory, rebuild the temple so that it may rival the great house of
Ptah
in Memphis or even the halls of
Amun
in Karnack itself. You have people enough to do that now, and it will be well to see them work at something, or questions will be asked. With that done you can elevate the power of your house higher still, move to gain the ear of young Prince Tuthmosis, he is not enamoured with
Amun
like his younger brother; he might yet be convinced to follow the Three That Are One. And then in time, with you as the voice of the god of Heliopolis, perhaps something can-”

“All this I will do,” Josef said. “Plans are in motion already. But men need freedom and men need hope, I’ll
not abandon ten thousand to-”

“Men need water and men need bread, aught
else is like a beautiful woman – desirable, but oft as not more trouble than it’s worth. Do right by the eight thousand you have already, forget the rest for now, or you risk losing them all.”

Josef waved him into silence as trumpets announced their guests’ arrival.
No, Solon, I will not forget. I will not forget even one.
He motioned for Shiri to leave by the rear exit as the temple doors swung open and his wife led the priests in. He’d have enough to deal with without the priests complaining of a Habiru in the temple. Solon stared after her a moment, before abruptly deciding to follow her out.

Tjuya curtsied before her husband, offering him the broadest of smiles. She had taken her father’s death surprisingly well and had offered stronger support than Solon, or even Shiri for his plan to close the other temples. Her father would never have had the courage to do that, and what was it but simply a return to the old ways? The upstart temples did naught but take gold that would once have come to them.

“Light of my life,” she held his eyes, he looked handsome astride his high seat, handsome and powerful. “I give to you the sun priests, and I give you the priests of
Osiris
and
Ptah
the acolytes of
Montu
,
Thoth
and
Seth
the priestesses of
Hathor
,
Isis
and
Sekhmet
and...” she paused a little uncertainly. “I give you, Papis, new made vizier to the Red Throne and first servant of the Hidden One.”

Josef raised an eyebrow
. “Papis? What brings you to our humble temple? Does the Co-Regent grow weary of your counsel?”

“On the contrary
, my lord,” Papis bowed stiffly. “I come hither out of respect to your wife’s father and to hear the wise words of the new high lord of the Sun Temple, and also...” he paused. “To bring news of the Great One’s passing.
Horus
made flesh, first lord of the Two Lands, the greatest and noblest of all men, no longer walks among the living. He fought long and hard against
Sekhmet’s
foul vapours as they grew and festered in the wound, but in the end not even Herben could save him from the dark path.”

The temple went deathly silent.
Josef nodded slowly.
“You come bearing ill-tidings, Papis. Heliopolis will offer prayer and sacrifice to aid the Divine One’s passing.”

“He needs not the prayers of
Heliopolis. He entrusts his body to Karnack as his father and his father’s father did before him.”

“And so ... Amenhotep takes the
Uraeus
Crown.”

“He would not
have had it so,” Papis replied. “Not for many years yet, but alas such are the cruelties of fate. With a heavy heart, he seeks to raise great monuments in Karnack to his father’s glory; a new temple, the like of which has not been seen before and two seated colossi of red granite to honour the twin gods that led us to victory on the fields of Armegiddo.”

“When is his first-born to be named Co-Regent? I would journey to
Memphis to offer fealty.”

Papis shrugged.
“The Red Crown will not pass to that one. He spends his life in a waking dream. This world is but a half imagined shadow to him, no more real than the visions he sees by night. The Co-Regency will go to the younger son, Tenamun, when he comes of age.”

Josef paled a little
.
Tenamun, puppet of Karnack.
“So be it.” He turned back to the sun priests. “To our own business then.” He shifted a little uncomfortably, half hoping that Papis would take his leave. Better if there was no representative of the Theban Triad here for this. Pentephres’s words rang in his ears.
‘It was the priests of Karnack that did it.’
A moment he felt uncertain.
Rise too high and they might do it again, and with both the new Pharaoh and the soon to be Co-Regent in their hands...
He steeled himself and looked past the cleric. “The blood sacrifice is to be cancelled,” he said quickly.

There was a slight murmuring amongst the sun pries
ts but no outright condemnation. It had been known that Pentephres’s heir had been against the sacrifice from the start. Only old Hapu voiced open opposition. “If naught else the child should burn for attempting escape, the Three That Are One demand sacrifice. If not for her, Pentephres would still...”

Tjuya jumped on him.
“How dare you question your high priest?” Already her husband had made them the largest slave holders in the Memphite plains. For that alone he would have her loyalty, but if his next plan succeeded they would soon be able to count themselves amongst the richest houses in the entire Lower Kingdom. Hapu bowed to the daughter of Pentephres more quickly than he would to her husband and stepped back.

“You have the truth of it, Hapu, a sacrifice is required, but I have a new and greater offering in mind.” Josef turned to his sun priests. “There is but one true god in
Heliopolis is there not? Who is he?”

“The Three That Are One,” the sun priests intoned solemnly, ignoring the vindictive murmurings of the acolytes of lesser gods.

“Aye, and you know his true name yet dare not speak it. Three gods,
Atum
, the father of life,
Ra,
the spirit of light, and
Horus,
son of
Isis,
blessed virgin
who gave herself to no living man...” He rose from the high seat and held the bloodstone ring aloft for all to see. “Three gods united in flame at the dawn of creation, they banished the night and brought light and life into the world. And the fire of their union burns still!” He pointed to the heavens through the aperture above his head bringing the bloodstone ever closer to the light.

“The very sun itself, the life giver,” he took a breath, “the
Aton,”
The sun priests drew breath as he said the great one’s name.
“
The
Aton
is the only god in Heliopolis and he will suffer no rivals.” Almost miraculously the Sun Ring seemed to erupt and sparkle, casting a faint red glow over its bearer as it entered the sight of god.

“Blasphemy!” Papis pointed an accusing finger at the high
priest. “Do you name yourself king that you-”

“I name myself high priest and lord of
Heliopolis, these lands are mine by right, the temples to lesser gods exist here only by my sufferance, and I will suffer them no longer. No more will I have golden idols of the false ones in
Aton’s
city; they will burn in the Godfires and provide a sweet savour for the lord. Here is your sacrifice!”

He pointed to the doors as they swung open. A long line of his temple guards burst boldly in, carrying scores of idols aloft. A few of the sun priests murmured ner
vously but Hapu found his voice. “The Three That Are One demand sacrifice!” he shouted, his eyes glowing. He had underestimated the courage of his new high priest, but now the boy had shown his worth. Yuya had proved himself a man of
Aton
and done what Pentephres would never have dreamed of, never have dared. He’d stood up for the god of Heliopolis and banished those that would encroach on his city.

The old priest raised his hands and th
rew his full weight behind Yuya. “Burn the false ones! Burn them all! Let no graven image survive! The Three That Are One demand sacrifice! What is the blood of a slave against the very flesh of the gods? Here is your sacrifice, almighty
Aton
– the idols of the false ones!”

The acolytes of the lesser temples cried out in anguish, but their voices were drowned under the weight of the upwelling from the sun priests. Little wonder the temple had been in decline for so long, little wonder the god of gods had abandoned them. For they had abandoned him, they had turned from him and allowed false idols to fill his city and steal his worshipers, but now they would make amends. Frantically they grabbed the idols from the soldiers and tossed them into the flames.

Papis’s face was stone. He saw a small silver and gold statue of
Amun
in the hands of one of the Heliopolitian guards and grabbed it from him. Akil glared at him and made to take it back. Papis met his gaze imperiously. “Drop your hand, dog, or would you see the All Father burn in the flames of heresy?”

Akil reached for it hesitantly.
“I follow my lord’s commands.”

“You follow him to the hell fires of
Duat
! Who but the god of Thebes held the infidel Hyksos at bay during the long wars of the elder days? Did this
Aton
of Heliopolis prevent
his
city from falling to the heathens? Who but
Amun
and his consort
Mut
of the truths can call for the hidden legions to slay the dread lord
Apeth
in his halls of blood and flesh? Who but
Amun
can spare the souls of the damned from the jaws of the Black Serpent?” He held the idol out, offering it to the soldier. “Take it then, take the All Father and do foul sacrilege.”

Akil l
owered his hand and looked away. “Go, priest, away with you then.” Papis turned tucking the statue under his robes, “And, priest,” Akil called after him. “When you talk to your beads, remember the man that spared the Hidden One from the fires of
Aton
.”