The Reckoning Time
Chapter One
I remember everything. I remember the palace of many rooms, the temples, and the people. It is to me now like looking upstream at a river as I float away. I can see where I have come from, all the little turns and twists in the current that have brought me to where I am, but I can not see where I am going. I can see very far up the river, nearly to its origin, and it is green.
The first tiny memory, like a jewel, is bright and cool. I sat on a marble step, at the feet of my nurse. Water splashed coolly over my hot and chubby toes. I slapped the reflection of the sun in the water, laughing and bubbling cheerful baby sounds. I do not know what I was trying to say, but I was happy. I watched the little bright lights dance in the water, sparkling on the backs of fish. My concentration was broken when a cry came from a group of women in the river. They were all screaming and hurrying to get out of the water. All accept one. I remember a tall, slim woman silhouetted against the bright sun. She reached out and took something from the Nile's grasp, cradling it to her bosom. All the others crowded around her, no longer afraid, exclaiming in surprise and making soft cooing sounds from the back of their throats. But I did not care for that. I was only a small child and had no knowledge of the future, no care for whom the little squirming bundle fetched from the Nile would become. Instead, I followed the golden ripples made by the disturbance with my eyes. I watched as they all melted into one great mirror of the sky, bridging the gap between earth and heaven, and touching the bright warmth of Ra.
A new brother came to our house. He was, my nurse told me, the son of my aunt. I had no concept of what an aunt was, nor why her son would be of any importance to me. I knew not where he had come from, and I did not like him. To my young eyes, the infant looked like a small lizard. I thought he was unworthy of the attention showered on him from all the women in the Palace of Cloth.
My aunt once brought him into the rooms my mother and I shared. My mother immediately left me and hurried over to join the other admirers crowding around the baby. I was angry with her for abandoning me. I ran to where she was rejoicing over the little one's strong arms and legs and grasped her skirts. I pulled at her hem and raised my arms to be held, but was ignored. I cried in frustration and sat down on the floor amidst the forest of legs. No one bothered to comfort me. They all departed after a time, leaving me to the tender care of my nurse, Makuhaten, who fed and fondled me until I was happy again. Then, in the childish way young ones have, I forgot all about the new baby.
A few years passed in moments and before I knew it, I had five years accounted to my name. Word came that I was to depart for the temple of Anubis. I was to train as a scribe.
I left the Palace of Cloths a little over a week after my summons, accompanied by my nurse. My mother bid me farewell at the great doors of the palace.
"Amonhem," she said, taking my hands in hers and speaking in her soft, melodic voice, "Be good. Grow to be wise. Marry young, and stay away from the river." Her eyes glossed over with tears. "Think of me time to time," she bid me, smiling a sad, half smile. I knew not to cry, but my throat hurt with sadness all the same. Makuhaten took my hand and led me down the steps and away to where a tiny boat moored to send us on our journey.
As I walked away over the smooth, red sands, I kept glancing back at her as she stood, arms demurely clasped before her. I looked back one last time before cresting boarding the skiff, and lo, the doors had closed to me forever and my mother was no longer there.
The temple which became my home was one of the largest ever built. It was darkly imposing, made entirely of black marble. The halls were always quiet, only the hushed whisper of sandals on the cold floors disturbing the dignified stillness. The great rooms were forever paced by softly chanting priests in their long, white robes. The only light other than the sun came from candles placed surreptitiously through the building. The great stone pillars soared high into the roof, so far that the tops were lost to sight among the gloom. Many large and staggeringly beautiful paintings decorated the walls and hieroglyphs told their stories in long, poetic monologs.
It was a majestically solemn place, and I escaped from it as much as I could when I was young. The temple was located in the city of Thebes, so there were many diversions with which to address my attentions. I was often chastised harshly when I was caught, however, so my escapes became less and less, until they finally stopped altogether. I grew to love the quiet darkness; the sound of the rustling, dry papyri scrolls; it was the only music for my ears. At that time my lamp would often burn into the nights as I read, long after all else were sleeping. I did well in all my studies and it was predicted that I would go on to great things; perhaps even become a priest in my own right.
But that all changed.
I was in my room reading of the after life, as was common, when my door opened and a boy stepped inside. He began immediately to spread his bedroll upon the floor. I had not been told I was to share my room and was annoyed at the way he nonchalantly pushed my belongings aside to make room for his own. I stood up from my bed and faced him.
"What are you doing?" I asked him, crossing my arms authoritatively. He glanced at me but did not bother to answer. I tried again.
"Who are you?"
This time he responded. He spread his thick legs, crossed his arms also, and raised his chin proudly.
"I am Moses," said he, "Son of Pharaoh."
Chapter Two
"Amonhem!"
The cry startled me out of my sleep. I pushed myself up off the couch and stared groggily at the scroll I had been reading. I wondered what had awoken me.
"Amonhem! You lazy jackal, wake yourself!" came the insistent voice again. I staggered to my window and leaned out.
"What?" I rubbed my eyes and squinted into the inky night.
"Come down!" ordered my friend Moses.
"Be quiet!" I cautioned him in a harsh whisper. "Why should I come down?"
He laughed and impertinently answered, "Why should I be quiet?" I heard him move below. "If you won't come down, I shall ascend."
I stepped back into my room as Moses climbed the tree that grew near my window and leapt the perilous distance between my sill and the oak's farthest branch. I shook my head as he clambered into my room.
"You will one day be killed jumping that."
He smiled and shrugged off my warning. He sat down on my couch and picked up the deserted papyrus. He made a face.
"The after life?" he asked disbelieving. "You stay up at all hours to read this?"
"Yes." I made a grab for it, but he pulled it away before I could take it.
"But this is so dry and uninteresting! Where as this way," he held the scroll askew and squinted at it, "It almost looks as if it talks about beautiful women."
I snatched it from him and rolled it up gently. "I enjoy the subject."
His eyebrows drew together in distaste.
"But what has it to offer? In the best of circumstances, all you do is continue living like you do now," he pointed out.
"That may be true, but I study it with pleasure all the same." I crossed my arms. "But you did not come to talk of that."
Moses sighed and rolled his eyes at my attempt to be stern and imposing. I may have been older, but I was also slim and, to his eyes, not at all threatening. Moses was large and brawny, with great, muscular arms and legs. He could have thrown a bull. Wrestling him had never been quite fair.
"You are right. But do not try to intimidate me. It does not work." Moses reprovingly wagged his forefinger at me. He reclined and stretched his legs out luxuriously. His eyes became mischievous. "Amonhem," he began, "how would you like to accompany me to the river?"
I was confused. "When?" I asked him. "I have not been given leave to go by the priests - " a thought came to my mind, "- and I will wager that you have not either."
Moses only smiled demurely. For an instant, I could have hit him.
"Tell me what it is you know!" I commanded him. He laughed.
"Alright! Alright. It is this; my brother is coming back to Thebes. I wish to be there. I wish you to come with me. It is simple."
I looked at him incredulously. "Simple? I think you underestimate the priests, Moses. At what time does your brother arrive?"
"Oh," Moses glanced up at the ceiling casually, calculating. "In three hours, perhaps."
I was stunned. "Three hours?" I repeated. Moses laughed again.
"Come." He got up and went back to the window. He put one foot on the ledge and prepared to climb out. "We will have to hurry. Ra crests the sands in less time than it will take us to arrive at the river if we do not run."
"I . . ."
I hesitated. Moses looked at me expectantly. I sighed in resignation.
"I am coming. Allow me to don my sandals."
"Don't bother." Moses gestured to his bare, dirty feet. "You won't need them."
I sighed again and walked over to the window.
"You may climb out before me, my friend," I told Moses, "I wish you to be the first to break your neck."
Moses grinned like a young boy and clambered out. I went in a much slower fashion.
"Don't spare your dignity, Amonhem," Moses called up from the ground. "There is no one to see it slaughtered but me."
"It is not for any notion of pride that I linger, Moses." I looked down to where he was standing; it seemed a hundred foot fall. "It is for my life."
"Simply jump to the tree," was his unmoved response. I looked carefully across the expansive distance hanging between the limb and me. I bounced on the balls of my feet. I breathed in deeply, exhaled, and took another breath. All my muscles tensed as I prepared to jump. My fingers tightened on the smooth stone sill for a moment as I pushed away from the temple and out into nothing.
My hands grasped the limb and I swung my legs around to straddle it. I gripped the rough wood for my life.
"Excellently done!" Moses was applauding from below. "But if your scream did not wake the dead, I am sure it awoke the priests."
"I did not scream." I descended to a lower branch and leapt to the ground.
"Of course you didn't," Moses agreed jocularly, "you shrieked. Now come, and hasten! We have less time now than ever before, and I wish to see my brother ride in on the dawn."
The hours that came after were devoted to running across the smooth, dark sand. If the air had seemed cold to me when we left the temple, it seemed so no longer. I had run so far that I could not feel my legs. I was surrounded by a sort of euphoria that kept me flying over the ground. I did not know if I would be able to stop once we reached the river, or if I would keep running, racing the waters to the sea. I had forgotten my shortness of breath and the burning of my calves who were my companions at the beginning. Now there were only the dunes, the sky, and, ever just ahead of me, Moses. An eagle soared over our heads as we came within sight of the river. Moses and I spread our arms to it, laughing for its freedom, and raced our quickest towards the Nile.
I was brought to a halt abruptly by Moses' arm striking my chest. I fell to my hands and knees, panting. Moses sat down beside me. He was breathing heavily also, and sweating in rivulets. I looked blearily at the mud forming at our feet. My side ached badly.
"Amonhem . . ." began Moses weakly, "We need to move. We must walk a ways."
I nodded, trying to suck air into my lungs as fast as it escaped them. Moses stood and pulled me to my feet. We staggered along through the streets of the small town, winding our way through its market until we could breathe and our legs felt more like flesh then water. Then we slowly made our way back to the river. It was about this time that I noticed the sky had lightened and that there were many, many people. Moses pushed his way through the throng, using his great arms to move protesters none too gently aside. I followed in his wake, nearly crushed by those who converged in the space left once his large body had abandoned it. It reminded of when I had first come to Thebes with my nurse, heading for the temple. It had been a festival, and there had been so many Egyptians there that it had been like walking through a sea of arms and legs. I had nearly been trampled that day, and now that I was thinking of it, I realized that I had never liked crowds since.
We reached the edge of the shore, where the blue waters washed upon the ground and became a ruddy brown. A cry rose that the barge was in sight. Moses and I strained our eyes in the direction they were pointing.
"I see it! He's coming!" Moses' jubilant cry met my ears and I smiled. I could see it too. It came closer on the waves as we watched. Soon the rowers were visible, and the royal canopy in all its finery. The crowds began to cheer as it crested the waves. It grew so near I could make out the faces of the attendants. Then Moses' voice rose above the crowds'.
"I see him! I see my brother! Behold him, Amonhem! I see the son of the gods!"
I looked and there he was. He rose from his cushioned seat and raised his glitteringly adorned arms to the sky, just as the sun broke from the horizon and painted fire across the heavens.
"Ramses," I whispered, unheard among the roaring crowd, "The child of Ra."