The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

goods from the street and barred the shutters of their windows, and the keepers of taverns and pleasure houses hurried to hire sturdy fellows with cudgels to protect their premises. The people arrayed themselves in white and began to stream from all quarters of the city, rich as well as poor, toward the great Temple of Amun, until its courts were crammed, and many were gathered outside the walls.

Meanwhile, the word flew round that during the night the temple of Aten had been desecrated and defiled. The rotting carcass of a dog had been thrown on the altar, and the watchman had been found with his throat slit from ear to ear. When people heard this, they shot sidelong glances of fear, but many could not refrain smiling from secret glee.

“Cleanse your instruments, my lord,” said Kaptah gravely. “I believe that before nightfall there will be much work for you to do and if I do not mistake, you will be opening skulls also.”

Yet nothing noteworthy took place before the evening. Drunken black soldiers plundered some shops and raped a couple of women but the guards seized them, and they were flogged in the sight of the people, which brought little consolation either to the robbed merchants or to the said women. Hearing that Horemheb was aboard the commander’s ship, I went to the harbour, though with little hope I would be allowed to approach him. The guard heard me with indifference and went to announce my arrival, then to my surprise returned to summon me to the captain’s cabin. Thus for the first time I boarded a warship and looked about me with great curiosity, yet only the armament and the more numerous crew distinguished it from other vessels, since merchantmen also might have gilded bows and coloured sails.

So once more I encountered Horemheb. He seemed to me even taller and of greater dignity than before, and his shoulders were broad, and the muscles of his arms powerful, but there were lines in his face, and his eyes were bloodshot from weariness and melancholy. I bowed low before him and stretched forth my hands at knee level, and he laughed and shouted in bitter voice, “Look, Sinuhe, the Son of the Wild Ass, my friend! In truth you come at an auspicious hour.”

367

He did not embrace me because of his dignity, but turned to a fat, little officer who stood beside him rather mortified, eyes popped and panting in the heat. Horemheb handed him his golden whip of office saying, “Here it is and take charge!” Removing his gold-embroidered collar, he set it about potbelly’s neck and added, “Assume command, and may the blood of the people flow over your filthy hands.” Only after that he turned to me and said, “Sinuhe, my friend, I am free to go with you wherever you will, and I hope you have a mat in your house where I can stretch my bones, for by Seth and all devils, I am very weary and bored of arguing with crazy people.” He then laid his hands on the shoulders of the little officer, who was a head shorter than himself, and said, “Look well upon him, my friend Sinuhe, and impress what you see upon your memory, for here is a man in whose hands lies the destiny of Thebes this day, and perhaps the destiny of all Egypt. For Pharaoh put him in my place when I told Pharaoh he was mad. But having seen him, you may readily surmise that Pharaoh will soon have need of me again.” He laughed and smote his knees, but there was no mirth in his laughter, and it frightened me.

The little officer looked at him meekly, his eyes popping with the heat and the sweat running down his face and neck and between his fat breasts. “Be not angry with me, Horemheb,” he said in a shrill voice. “You know that I have not coveted your whip of office for I prefer my cats and the peace of my garden to the din of war. But who am I to set myself against the commands of Pharaoh, and he declares that there will be no war, but that the false god shall fall without bloodshed.”

“He talks as he hopes,” answered Horemheb. “His heart runs ahead of his reason as a bird outstrips a snail. Therefore his words have no weight but you should think for yourself and shed blood moderately, with due consideration, even though it may be the blood of Egyptians. By my falcon, I will flog you with my own hand if you have left your good sense and skill in the cages with your pedigreed cats — for in the time of the late Pharaoh you were an eminent warrior, so has been told to me, which no doubt is why Pharaoh entrusted you with this tedious task.”

He thumped the new royal commander on the back so that the little fellow gulped and gasped, and the words he had meant to say stuck fast in his throat. Horemheb sprang up on deck in two strides, and the soldiers straightened themselves and greeted him with smiling faces and

368