“I have heard that your god dwells in the mazes of a dark house,” I said persistently. “I would gladly see this labyrinth, of which I have heard much, but I do not understand why the initiates never return from it, though they have permission to do so when they have been there for the space of one moon.”
“The highest honour and the profoundest bliss that can fall to a Cretan youth or maiden is to enter the mansion of the god,” said Minotaur, repeating words he had said countless times before. “Therefore the islands in the sea vie with one another in sending their fairest maidens and the best of their young men to dance before the bulls so that they may take part in the drawing of lots. I do not know whether you have heard stories of the sea god’s mansions, where life is altogether different from that which we know, so that no one who has entered it desires to return to the torment and sorrow of the world. Or do you, Minea, fear to enter the house of the god?”
Minea made no reply, and I said, “I have seen the bodies of seamen washed up on the beach at Zemar, and their faces and bellies were swollen, and no joy was reflected in their features. That is all I know of the mansions of the sea god, but I do not doubt your word, and I wish all good to Minea.”
Minotaur said coldly, “You shall see the labyrinth for the night of the full moon is near, and upon that night Minea will enter the house of the god.”
“And if Minea refuses to enter the house of god?” I asked fiercely, for his words took me by surprise and froze my heart with despair.
“Such a thing has never happened,” said Minotaur. “Be easy, Sinuhe, the Egyptian. When Minea has danced before the bulls, she will enter the god’s house of her own free will.” He donned the golden bull’s head once more as a signal that we might retire, and his face was hidden from us. Minea took my hand and led me away, and she was no longer happy.
3
Kaptah was at the inn when I returned and had drunk copiously in the wine shops of the harbour and said to me, “My lord, for servants thisland is the Western Land, since no one beats them or remembers how much gold was in his purse or what jewels he had. Truly, my lord, this is the Western Lard on earth for servants, since if a master be wroth with his servant and order him to leave his house — which is the most severe punishment they have — the servant has but to hide himself and return the following day when his master has forgotten the whole matter. But to the sailors and slaves of the harbour this is an evil land, for the stewards have sharp sticks and are cheap —
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and the merchants deceive someone from Zemar as easily as someone from Zemar deceives an Egyptian. But they have some small fish they keep in clay jars with oil, and they are tasty with wine. For the sake of these delicious fish, I forgive them a lot.”
This he said in his customary manner as if he were drunk, but then he shut the door, and having assured himself that no one was listening, he said, “My lord, strange things are coming to pass in this country for the seamen in the wine shops say that the god of Crete has died and that the priests in great fear are seeking a new god. This is dangerous talk for which sailors have already been hurled from the clifftop to be devoured by cuttlefish. It has been foretold that the might of Crete will crumble when the god dies.”
A mindless hope blazed up in my heart, and I said to Kaptah, “On the night of the full moon, Minea is to enter the house of god. If he is indeed dead, and it may be so, for the people come to know all things at last though no one tells them, then Minea may come back to us from the god’s house, whence no one has hitherto returned.”
Kaptah said, “Hasn’t that accursed girl caused us enough harm and trouble, for it indeed hurts my dignity when a woman makes my nose bleed with a slipper. But you said it right that people are last to know everything though no one tells them, and at first they learn of things vaguely, like in a dream, but finally everything is revealed in a flash, and then fighting in the streets breaks out, and houses burn, and many things change. And I do not envy the distinguished men of Crete, if their god indeed has died, for once the word is out, the harbour will roll to the city, and the blacksmiths will take their hammers and the fishermen their spikes, and the porters will break wood from trees to their hands — so I think, but other things may happen as well.”
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