Author's note:
OK, so we move now to a big chunk of the Ancient Egyptian timeline. Don't forget what has happened in modern-day Cairo though! Hopefully the parallel timelines are not as confusing as they seem!
Finally I get to write about the relationship between Aretas and Enheduana-Rai, which you all have probably guessed by now - the ancient version of Ardeth and Dr. Khalan (and what a start, as you're going to find out); after all that has happened between Djosyn and Nefertiri! I had originally intended that Aretas and Rai would take precedence in this story, but later thought that Djosyn and Nefertiri ought to have something too.
Fans of Ardeth/Aretas, hold on! There's more coming! More angst that is coming up, but with equal mush that accompanies it! Thank you for your reviews and comments, please do keep them coming.
Background:
The Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or better known as Akhenaten, tried to destroy Egypt's polytheistic religion towards the end of the 18th dynasty by replacing it with a new religion based on the worship of the sun. His belief was founded on the sun as the exclusive source of all life and creation whose power was visible in the life-giving rays of the sun-disk called the Aten. Akhenaten then claimed to be the high priest of Aten on earth and ordered temples built for the worship of the Aten, open to the sky and without a place for a divine statue. However, after his death, the old gods were reinstates at Thebes and Akhenaten was regarded nothing more than a renegade and a heretic.
As for the historic place Aram, it existed as a site around Babylon, but what I write of its natural resources is a natural resource of my own imagination.
Chapter 11
Even so you run to seek your beloved one,
Like the steed upon the battlefield,
As the warrior rolls along the spokes of his wheels.
-Ancient Egyptian Verse, Circa. 2000 B.C.
The 19th Dynasty of Egypt, ca.1279 B.C
She had left Nefertiri with Djosyn in the quietest possible manner, holding several unused strips of cloths near to her body, lest anyone enquired too closely.
Aretas watched Djosyn enter Nefertiri's chamber, and then turned to see Enheduana-Rai silently glide down the opposite corridor. A full moon cycle seemed far in coming, especially when time seemed to stand still, prolonging the agony of Egypt before the tired land dipped into tranquillity for the night.
Nobody seemed to know who Enheduana-Rai really was, least of all him -the sun does not drag the moon like an echo, just as bruised hearts were never seen burning in the flames, just as there were unfathomable depths of the Nile and the Red Sea that no man had yet plumbed. Elusive, unattainable, detached and shrouded in enigma, this woman appeared to him and all those saw her. Starlight and moonlight that drifted occasionally over black water, he thought, could not be held in one's hand unless one understood what starlight and the moonlight were. Some said that she was a worshipper of the cult religion of the Sun under the reign of Akhenaten, others whispered that she was a conquest of Ramses himself, a prized possession among his plunder and loot of the north-eastern regions beyond the gulf. Many had mentioned she had been paraded down the same streets that Seti had rode his royal chariots through, although he had never seen it. There was no surprise that she was regarded with distrust and coldness; Enheduana-Rai did not seem to care; she was almost a renegade concubine, her face constantly expressionless and aloof.
He had watched her fight Nefertiri, her offensive and defensive positions unlike that of the Egyptian fighting stances, but nonetheless effective and deadly under a deft hand -everything seemed to reveal that she was a foreign woman brought, either forcibly or by choice, under the rule of Ramses.
Almost unconsciously he followed her, thinking at the back of his mind that the queen would be safe now with Djosyn, following quietly at a safe distance, and saw her going down large winding stairs that led to the back of the palace, and into the small area of marshland and long grass that grew wildly around a tributary of the Nile.
Life where water was found, he smiled briefly. The constancy of the Nile overflowing its banks with rich soil was a sight to behold.
Enheduana-Rai has associated herself with life, whether she knew it or not, bending downwards to kneel before the stream, and washing her hands clean of Nefertiri's dried blood that could not seem to be removed.
He was puzzled -she had chosen not to be cleaned by the servants that were at the beck and call of the royal concubines; and chose to be alone in this marshland.
But in her other hand she seemed to hold a bluish-green substance, the colour of the notorious Sumerian poison - deeply stunned and infuriated, he strode to her, drew his dagger and pulled her up by the arm to face him without any hint of gentleness.
She was not strange looking at all, he realised, as he looked at her face properly for the first time. Varying colours that slid into each other were found in her eyes, just like the colours of the Nile as they changed surely during Egypt's mild seasons, fragments and tones of the Egyptian sunset stamped in her dark hair. Enheduana-Rai, as exquisite as her name sounded, Pharaoh's most precious acquisition since the Hittite War, after his queen Nefertiri.
But the fine exterior of which a person was always became a mockery when the evil of the inside seeped out, he thought.
You had meant to kill the queen, did you not, he spoke to her through gritted teeth, pointing the dagger at the delicate skin of her throat. Did I not warn you earlier that if she did not live, you would not too? Return with me now, and administer the cure to her.
She looked at him sharply, tall and powerfully built, clad only in a white cotton loincloth embroidered in gold at its edges, tied in an elaborate knot down the front, taking in his bare head - closely cropped midnight hair - and beard that covered the upper lip and chin, darkly menacing with markings on his face and upper arms.
Release me, Medjai, her tone was vapid, bland. When he did not, she spat out, You let your excitable emotions rule your head today.
Do not play tricks with me, Enheduana-Rai. No one allies herself to the queen without nasty intentions or without the hope of any gain. The wiles of the evil are not to be underestimated.
Kill me then, and leave the blood of an innocent on your hands if the queen lives, she taunted. Did you not make your warning clear when I closed the door behind earlier? Did I not agree to heed it?
His grip on her loosened a fraction, but the dagger was kept pointed there.
So I did, but it seems that you did not heed me. You do not take the Medjai seriously, Enheduana-Rai.
Release me, Medjai, she repeated calmly, I heard you approach; do not think I was unaware.
And at this he felt the sharp tip of another dagger at his belly, taken aback that she carried a concealed weapon wherever she went, a weapon that that he berated himself for not noticing.
Will you listen to what I have to say now, Medjai? Your actions have forced me to do this, she said sharply to him.
So speak now. Until I am satisfied with your explanation, these two blades will touch our skins, he growled.
As you wish, Medjai, Enheduana-Rai acquiesced. But remember that you have no claim on me; the death of a Medjai means nothing to the Pharaoh, if you should die in protecting his and all that is his, is it not? Should my blade penetrate your skin, the Pharaoh will accept my explanation of self-defense easier than he would of yours, should your blade enter my throat, for you then take away one of his possessions.
He withdrew the dagger from her throat, and felt, rather than saw her sheathing hers quietly, waiting, watching in silence. He was a predator to her, who had pounced on his prey, closing in, but not before the prey turned on him, and played his own game.
I did not kill the queen, she said flatly, meeting his eyes. These are not Sumerian poisons, but herbs that resemble them, which I made Nefertiri swallow whole. And that is all that you require to know.
She held out her hand briefly to him, and he caught sight of the true nature of the substance -bluish, green, but rough and flaky, not smooth and powdery as he had initially thought.
Enheduana-Rai bent down then, wiping the remnants of the substance into the gentle stream, cleaning her hands of it, making no further attempt to acknowledge the existence of the Medjai warrior who had held her at knife-point. She was not obligated to answer him; she would have fought him with her dagger, even though she knew his strength and skills to be superior but his compelling presence and intensity of gaze had stirred a defiance as well as a fear in her; it seemed that she needed a defense of taunts and provocation more than she needed physical weapons.
He felt aggravated and yet contrite; she had taken him apart with the deadly skill of an assassin, with a single phrase -when she said that he was caught in his moment of weakness -that by letting the irrational and capricious feelings of the heart leap over his head he had been made the lesser man. How effortless it seemed then, that the rigour of the years of Medjai training and the creed of Medjai patience, endurance and honour heaped on him had disappeared for a moment. And it was the future repetition of this loss that he feared so much; yet it was also the worry that the outwardly unbreakable warrior would overshadow the emotions that he knew also characterised him as a man.
I am greatly sorry then, Enheduana-Rai, for doubting you and for holding my knife close to your throat, and forgive that presumptuousness I have shown so keenly in your good time, he hesitatingly put forth, knowing that he then that humility was the deepest and most precious form of apology he could offer to her; instinctively, he knew that it was what he constantly needed too, a ready sense of humility that made him aware of his own limits as a warrior-scribe. To not do so was to dishonour his own people and all that he had grown up with.
She paused in her washing, rubbing hands stilling in the slight flowing water, trying to decipher the bewildering turns of this certain Medjai. Surely warriors only chose to show a side that was heroic -the suit of humility, as she had observed, were to be found only in the realm of the feminine.
You are forgiven, Medjai, she stated slowly, the words unfamiliar on her lips, the position of power she now held over him alien and untried. Remember what I did to you no more as well.
He breathed audibly now.
Will you please show me then, the method of healing that you have used on the queen? Unless I am enlightened, I will continue to misunderstand.
She seemed to consider his request and got up from her kneeling position, rummaging around the cloths for a plain oval container of sorts, carved out of a light-coloured wood he had never seen before. It seemed as if his sincere apology had quite unprepared her for the immediate request that came after that; his want to learn more of her unexpectedly softened her and she felt immensely compelled to accommodate all that he asked.
Look at this first and tell me what you see and what you think it is, she suggested, handing the oval-shaped box to him. Please, it is all that I have left, and it is costly to me.
He took it uncertainly and marvelled at the durability of the wood and its lightweightedness. Opening it, he saw the very same substance that he called poison a while ago, and upon closer examination, found that the rough and flaky bits broke apart at the slightest shake. There was only very little left, he noticed, and looked up once more, to find Enheduana-Rai and her impenetrable countenance directed at him.
The blue and the green are colours that dazzle me; I have never seen herbs this colour before. I do not know what it is, he confessed. My knowledge of substances is only limited to what is found in Egypt.
Kúât'ïm ehktsún, she let the words fall softly from her tongue, relishing the feel of her native tongue again, even if only to speak the name of a herb, the only tree that yields it in the mountains north of Aram. The last of the young trees were razed to the ground when Ramses overtook the lands and defeated the armies on their own soil.
Aretas nodded his head mutely at her words; the foreign language that she spoke and her knowledge of places unknown intrigued and fascinated him; yet he was afraid to pursue the delicate subject further, for fear that she may bolt at the show of the slightest bit of interest.
He turned his gaze onto the box instead.
And the value of the herb? He murmured, holding it under the direct sunlight, examining the way it brought out the metallic in the flakes; he now esteemed it greatly now that he had learnt there were no more such trees.
Armies kill for it, Medjai, Enheduana-Rai met him square in the eye, before turning away. It suppresses bleeds and wounds in the twinkling of an eye and soldiers covet it for their broken bodies.
How is it that this miracle of a plant has disappeared? Aretas probed. She was folding and refolding her squares of cotton cloths, and he knew that his continual questions were starting to agitate her.
Ramses, in his attempt to stop the fight over the trees, set them ablaze so no one can say they claim ownership of anything.
So there is no more left, to your knowledge? He asked, and she shook her head.
None that I know. Much of it was used on the queen, she looked at him pointedly, her eyes glittering with the slightest trace of anger.
He ignored her look, knowing that the remnants of anger he saw would not flare again.
But you have it with you, he pointed out boldly, a challenge in his eyes, daring her to reveal more to him. How did you acquire it?
She turned back to him unflinchingly.
Those who are familiar with the arts of healing possess it, she replied in a non-committal way.
And you are one of them? You are a healer? He asked, intrigued.
You may think that if you wish, Enheduana-Rai conceded, stretching out her hand for the box.
He held on to it still, fingers curling around the box, refusing to give it back to her yet. He shook it some more, watching yet more rough flakes readily crumble into fine powder. He wondered briefly if she was like this drug she spoke of -would the flakes he saw now crumble into a fine powder if he pressed on?
You do not answer my question, he frowned. I asked you who you are.
Medjai, she said with a hint of impatience, were you not listening? Must I say it again? It is essential to all who practice the arts of healing, she repeated.
I am a stubborn man, Enheduana-Rai, as you can attest to, he pointed out. But I will not ask you more than what you are willing to tell me.
She looked at him again, impenetrable, assessing.
I will return the box to you now, and I thank you now, on behalf of the Pharaoh, on behalf of Djosyn, that you have saved the life of someone very important to Egypt. You have used a rare commodity, knowing that none more could be found, to save someone whom you know. And for that you have my respect, Enheduana-Rai.
He let go of the box then, into her hand, their palms briefly touching as the box made its transfer.
All that the Pharaoh possesses is under the protection of the Medjai. Do not forget that.
With that, he turned around and made his way up the stairs, disappearing quietly and quickly, leaving her to wonder what his last words had really meant.
The very capriciousness of her emotions beleaguered her as she sat down among the reeds, knees shaking, mulling over their tense moment and then the uneasy lapse into conversation. The Medjai had seemed a very determined man, she thought, and it was with the greatest effort that she had composed herself and steeled her voice to remain neutral and low as she answered his questions.
But she had been shaking inside; rage, sadness and grief had welled up as soon as she had mentioned Aram and she thanked the gods for the rein on herself that surely some higher power had kept for her.
