The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

big beyond belief. Kaptah had the same thought, for he said, “This cannot be from a bull, for such a bull could not enter these passages. I believe it is the droppings of a gigantic serpent.” So saying, he took another deep draught from the jar, his teeth chattering against the rim — and I reflected that the maze seemed made for the movements of an immense serpent and was seized with the impulse to turn back. But then I remembered Minea, and impelled by wild despair, I pressed forward, dragging Kaptah with me and gripping my knife in a moist hand, though I knew that it was useless.

As we continued, the stench of the passages grew ever more appalling, resembling the reek from some enormous grave, and it was difficult for us to breathe. Yet I rejoiced, knowing that we were near our goal. We rushed onward until greyness filled the passage like a faint light from afar, and we found ourselves in the mountain itself, and the walls were no longer bricked but hewn from soft rock. Now the way led downward, and we stumbled over human bones and heaps of dung, as if we had entered the nest of a huge beast, until at last a great cavern opened before us, and we stopped standing on a rocky ledge overhanging an expanse of water and were enveloped in an unspeakable stench.

Light entered this cavern from the sea, a dreadful greenish light that enabled us to see without torches, and somewhere in the distance we could hear waves thundering against the rocks. On the surface of the water before us floated what appeared to be a row of immense leather sacks, until the eye perceived them to be one huge, dead animal — more huge and more terrifying than can be imagined, emitting the stench of corruption. Its head had sunk into the water, and it was like that of a colossal bull with the body like that of a monstrous serpent, which, made light by decomposition, rocked its hideous curves on the water. I knew that I beheld the god of Crete and knew also that this beast of horrors had been dead for months. Where then was Minea?

As I thought of her, I thought also of all those initiated to the god who had preceded her to the god’s house after learning to dance before the bulls. I thought of the youths to whom women were forbidden and of the girls who must preserve their virginity in order to enter into the light and bliss of the god, and I thought of their skulls and bones lying

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in the passages of the dark house, and I thought of the beast pursuing them through the labyrinthine corridors and blocking the way with its monstrous bulk so that neither their leaps nor skills with bulls could help them. This leviathan had lived on human flesh, and it was content with one meal in the month, and this meal was furnished by the rulers of Crete in the form of their fairest girls and most perfect youths, fancying that by so doing they could maintain the sovereignty of the seas. From out of the dreaded depths of the ocean the creature must once, long ago, have been driven into the cavern by some tempest, and they had built a barrier across the entrance to prevent its return and the labyrinth for it to run in and fed it with sacrifices until it had died, and there could be no other such monster in the whole world. Where then was Minea?

Mad with despair, I shouted Minea’s name and awoke the echoes in the cavern until Kaptah pointed to the rock on which we stood and showed the dried blood stains on the rocks. Following the track of this down into the water, my eyes beheld Minea’s body, or what was left of it as it stirred slowly along the bottom, dragged by sea crabs that were tearing at it ravenously so that her face was gone, and I recognised her only by the silver net over her hair. I did not have to look for the sword gash in her breast, for I knew that Minotaur had followed her here, thrust his blade through her from behind and thrown her into the water that none might learn that the god of Crete was dead. This he must have done to many a girl and youth before Minea.

When I had seen and comprehended it all, a terrible cry burst from my throat, and I sank down on my knees in a swoon and would certainly have fallen from the ledge to join Minea, had not Kaptah held my arm and dragged me to safety, as he afterward told me. Of what then befell, I know nothing save by Kaptah’s account. So deep and mercifully profound was the swoon followed upon by anxiety, torment and despair.

Kaptah told me that he mourned long beside my body, believing me to be dead, and he wept also for Minea until his good sense returned to him, and having felt me and found that I was alive, he reflected that he could save at least me though he could do nothing for Minea. He also told that he had seen the bodies of other girls and youths whom Minotaur had slain, and the crabs had torn all the flesh from these bones so that they lay smooth and white upon the sandy bed of the sea. But if

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