Seer of Egypt Read Free

did not think he would ever become used to the care of servants who not only kept the house clean and cooked the food, as Hapzefa, Ishat’s mother, still did for his parents and his brother, Heby, but who were responsible as well for making his life as easy and free as possible.
    “Your scribe speaks good sense,” the steward went on. “Khnit cannot continue to provide water and juices to the multitudes, let alone the bread and honey they demand. The King sends you gold every month, but even his coffers in Mennofer could not feed the whole of Hut-herib indefinitely. Your gate guard, Kar, has been jostled and threatened. It is time to seek a solution to this problem.”
    Huy did not want to agree with them. Did he not have a duty to the god who had given him this onerous gift, to use it to the limit of his strength? Both Ishat and Merenra were watching him expectantly.
    “The first thing we need is a contingent of soldiers stationed in front of the gate,” Ishat pressed him. “The second is some sort of restriction on the days you will be available and the numbers of people you will allow to come. Huy, I have not seen my mother since we moved in here!” she burst out. “And you need to visit your family. What good are you to anyone if you are dead from all this confusion?”
    Huy knew rebellion when he saw it, and indeed he was secretly relieved that this decision had been taken from him. “Very well,” he said. “Let us reorganize our life. Merenra, is there any more wine?”
    He remembered Anhur, the soldier who had guarded and befriended him on his visits to the temple of Thoth at Khmun, where he had read the portions of the Book of Thoth stored there. Anhur now served in the King’s army; he had become one of the elite Shock Troops. But perhaps Pharaoh would release him into my service, Huy reflected as the golden palm wine cascaded into his cup and Merenra stood back. Amunhotep values my gifts. Already I have Seen for his Vizier and namesake, Amunhotep, and his chief scribe, Seti-en. We would all be safe if Anhur came here with a small detachment. I will petition High Priest Ramose for the release of Amunmose also. He came with me to Khmun carrying scrolls for Thoth’s High Priest. He was cheerful and begged me to remember him if I ever needed a good cook. At the time I could not imagine the turn my fortunes have taken, not in my wildest dreams of success and vindication, yet here we are, Ishat and I, living like the aristocrats we are not. He smiled and raised the silver cup to his mouth, knowing that the flavour of palms would bring to mind a picture of the river in spring and the faint aroma of damp foliage along its banks. He had given up hoping for inebriation a very long time before.
    He dictated a respectful request to Wesersatet, the King’s Commander-in-Chief, and to his old guide and overseer High Priest Ramose at Iunu, his eyes on Ishat, sitting cross-legged at his feet, her pink tongue caught between her teeth as she laboured to produce the neatest hieroglyphs she could. Then he took each scroll from her and wrote his own name, Huy son of Hapu, Seer . “Give them to Merenra. He can go into Hut-herib and find a herald,” he told Ishat as she stoppered her ink and scrambled up. “I think that until we receive replies, we will close and chain the gates, and you and I will take the litter into town, to the finest jeweller Merenra can recommend. It’s time we used some of Amunhotep’s gold on ourselves. Merenra can find us a barge and a few sailors as well.”
    Dropping her palette on Huy’s desk, she flung her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “Thank you, my dearest brother, thank you!” she breathed. “Oh, Huy, I love this house and my big bedchamber and the glorious food I don’t have to cook myself and seeing our laundry come in from the tubs outside while my hands get softer every day! Am I becoming shallow, do you think?”
    Enveloped in the combination of myrrh, cassia, and henna