The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

he told all this to comfort me, I don’t know. In any case, he began to be stifled by the smell. When he found that he could not carry both me and the wine jar, he resolutely drank the rest of the wine and threw the empty jar into the water and was so greatly fortified by this that he succeeded in half dragging, half carrying me back to the copper gates by means of the thread we had unrolled on our way in. After a moment’s reflection, he thought it best to roll it up again as he went so as to leave no trace of our visit in the labyrinth and said he noticed in the light of his torch secret signs on the walls, no doubt set there by Minotaur to help him find his way and not get lost. Kaptah told me he had thrown the wine jar into the water to give Minotaur something to think about when next he carried out his executioner’s work.

Day was dawning as he brought me out and locked the door behind him and put the key back in the priest’s house, for the watchmen and the priest were still sleeping, drugged with the wine I had mixed for them. Next, he took me to a hiding place in a thicket on the bank of a stream and there bathed my face and rubbed my hands until I came to my senses. I do not remember anything of this either for he said I was much distracted and unable to speak, and he therefore gave me a drug to calm me down. I did not return to clear consciousness until much later when we were approaching the city, Kaptah leading and supporting me. Thereafter I remember everything.

But I recall no suffering, nor did my thoughts turn that much to Minea who was now a remote shadow in my soul, as if I had met her in some other long-gone life. Instead, I reflected that the god of Crete was dead and that the might of Crete would now be destroyed according to the prophecy, and I was in no way cast down by this although the Cretans had shown me kindness and their mirth sparkled like sea spray on the shore, just as their art sparkled. When I came near the city, I was glad to think that those airy, delicate buildings would one day be in flames, and that the women who scream from the heat of arousal would one day be screaming from being killed; and that Minotaur’s golden bull head would be beaten flat with hammers and divided among the rest of the spoils and that nothing would remain of the power of Crete; and the very island would sink again into the sea from which, with the bull monster of the sea, it had once arisen.

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I thought also of Minotaur, and without ill will, for Minea’s death had been easy, and she had not had to flee from the monster with every trick her art had taught her but died before she knew what had befallen her. I reflected that Minotaur was alone in the knowledge that the god was dead and that Crete must fall, and I guessed that his secret could be no easy one to bear. I was not sure his task had ever been easy, even in the days when the monster still lived, and he sent the most beautiful girls and youths of his country into that dark house, month after month, year after year, knowing what happened to them there. No, I felt no rancour but I sang and laughed like a madman as I walked, leaning upon Kaptah who easily convinced those of Minea’s friends whom we met that I was still drunk after having awaited Minea’s return — which was natural for I was a foreigner and too ignorant to know how barbarous it must appear to them to be publicly drunk in the middle of the day. At last, he was able to hire a chair and took me back to the inn where, having drunk a great quantity of wine out of my own will, I sank into a long and profound slumber.

When I awoke again, my head was very clear and bright and the past remote, and so I thought again of Minotaur and how I should set forth and slay him but I knew that it would serve no purpose and bring no joy to me. I also thought that I could reveal that the god of Crete was dead to the people of the harbour so that they could burn the city and spill the blood, but neither would that serve any purpose and bring any joy to me.

Yet I thought that by telling the truth, I could save the lives of all those who were still to draw lots, or who had already drawn them, for the privilege of entering the house of god, but I knew that truth is an unsheathed knife in the hands of a child and readily turns against its holder.

As a foreigner, therefore, I felt that the god of Crete was no concern of mine, and nothing would bring Minea back to me. Crabs and crayfish would gnaw at her delicate bones, and she would rest forever on the sandy floors of the sea. I told myself that all had been written in the stars long before the day of my birth; and I was born during the sunset of the world when the gods die and everything becomes different than before, as one era ends and another era begins. This brought me consolation, and I spoke of it at length to Kaptah, but he said that I was ill and asked me to rest — and he forbade anyone to see me when I wanted to share my thoughts with others.

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