The princess said angrily, “How then did it enter your minds to kill a man to whom the king has granted safe-conduct?”
Embarrassment showed on the officer's face and he said nothing. The princess said in an imperious tone, “Release this trader and take the wounded commander to the palace physicians!”
The officer obeyed the order and let Isfmis go free and the youth climbed down into his boat and turned it toward the royal ship, saying to himself with relief, “How did the princess manage to arrive at the right moment?” Then he climbed onto the deck of the ship, unimpeded by any of the guards, to find that the princess had returned to her cabin, to which he directed his firm steps, asking a slave girl for permission to enter. The girl disappeared inside for a moment and then returned with permission, and he entered, his heart beating. He found the princess seated on a luxurious divan, her back resting on a silken cushion, her face radiating a brilliant light. He bowed before her with genuine respect and, as he straightened his back, saw his necklace with the green emerald around her neck. He blushed. Nothing of the emotions passing over his face and eyes escaped her, and she said in a sweet and melodious voice, pointing to the necklace with her finger, “Have you come to ask me for the price of the necklace?”
The youth was reassured by her sweet tone and pleased by her jesting. He said honestly, “Indeed no. I have come, Your Highness, to thank you in all sincerity for the blessing of life that you have bestowed upon me, for which I shall remain in your debt as long as I live.”
She smiled a dazzling smile that passed over her lips like a lightning flash. She said, “Indeed, you owe me your life. Do not wonder if I say so, for I am not one of those whom hypocrisy compels to put on a show of false modesty. I discovered this morning that the commander had set sail with a small fleet to cut off your convoy, so I caught up with him in this ship and I saw a part of your fight. Then I intervened at the right moment to save your life.”
Her graciousness was to his heart as water to one dying of thirst. The look in her drowsy eyes and her announcement of her desire to save his life intoxicated him with happiness and he asked her, “May I hope that my lady will tell me frankly, in view of what I know to be her hatred of hypocrisy and affectation, what made her take upon herself the inconvenience of saving my life?”
She replied gaily, as though making light of his attempts to embarrass her, “To make you my debtor for it.”
“It is a debt that makes me richer, not poorer.”
She raised to him her blue eyes, making him feel as though he was about to stagger and fall at her feet, and said, “What a liar you are! Is that what a debtor says to his creditor as he turns his back on him to set off on a journey from which he will never return?”
“On the contrary, my lady, it is a journey from which he will return soon.”
As though addressing herself, she said, “I am wondering to myself what benefit I might derive from this debt.”
Heart throbbing, he looked into the blueness of her eyes and saw in them a look of surrender and of tenderness sweeter than the life that she had given him. The air between them seemed to him to pulsate with a profound heat and a magic that drew their two souls into itself, to meet and mingle. All inhibition thrown aside, he fell at her feet.
With strands of golden hair straying over her shining forehead and her ears, she asked him, “Will you be gone for long?”
He replied, sighing, “A month, my lady.”
A look of sorrow passed over her eyes and she said, “But you do intend to come back, don't you?”
“I do, my lady, by this life of mine which belongs to you and by this sacred cabin!”
She held her hand out to him and said, “Till we meet again.”
He kissed her hand and said, “Till we meet again.”
Latu met him with open arms and tears in his eyes, hugging him to his chest, and Ahmose threw his arm around his neck and kissed his brow. The convoy then raised anchor and set off at full tilt, the men standing gazing after the princess's ship, which pushed on to the north as they did to the south, until their eyes turned away in weariness. Returning to the cabin, they took their seats as though nothing had happened.
Isfmis distracted himself by watching the villages and their hardy menfolk with their coppery bodies, but his heart kept pulling him back to the cabin. Did Latu suspect anything? Latu was a noble man, whose heart had grown old and renounced everything but love of Egypt. And he could not shake himself free either of a thought that haunted him: had he acted wrongly or rightly? But what mortal could reach the goal that he had first set himself without taking into account what he might find along the way? How many a man had set out to climb a mountain and found himself descending into a deep chasm! And how many a man, having fledged his arrows for the hunt, had found the quarry had turned and was chasing him!
15
The convoy safely crossed the borders of Egypt, and the men prayed an ardent collective prayer to the Lord Amun. They thanked their Lord for the paths of success that he had paved for them and they called on Him to bring their hopes within reach and preserve their women from all harm. The convoy proceeded upstream for some days and nights till it anchored at a small island for rest and recuperation. Latu invited the men to leave the ships for the island and, standing among them with Isfinis on his right, he said to them, “Brothers, let me reveal to you a secret that I have concealed from you for reasons that you will understand. Know that we are envoys to you from the family of our martyred sovereign Seqenenra and that your sovereign Kamose awaits your arrival now in Napata.”
Astonishment appeared on the men's faces and some, unable to contain themselves for joy, asked, “Is it true, Lord Latu, that our royal family is in Napata?”
Smiling, he bowed his head in reply. Others asked, “Is our Sacred Mother Tetisheri there?”
“She is, and soon she will congratulate you herself.”
“And our sovereign Kamose, son of Seqenenra?”
“He is, and you will see him with your own eyes, and hear him with your own ears.”
“And the Crown Prince, Ahmose?”
Latu smiled and pointed to Isfinis, then bowed his head, saying, “I present to you, gentlemen, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Egypt, His Royal Highness Prince Ahmose.”
Many exclaimed, “The trader Isfinis is the Crown Prince Ahmose?”
Ahmose Ebana, however, prostrated himself at the prince's feet, weeping, and the rest then did the same behind him, some weeping, some cheering, their cries rising from the depths of their hearts.
The convoy resumed its journey with joy unconfmed, the men almost wishing the ships could fly with them to Napata, where their divine sovereign Kamose and sacred mother Tetisheri awaited them. Days and nights passed, then Napata appeared on the horizon with its simple huts and modest buildings, its features continuing to grow closer and more distinct until the convoy cast anchor in its harbor. Some soldiers noticed the convoy and went to the palace of the governor and a crowd of Nubians gathered on the shore to watch the ships and those that they brought. The Egyptians disembarked with Prince Ahmose and Chamberlain Hur at their head. Then a fast chariot arrived, from — which descended Raum, governor of the south. He greeted the prince and those — with him, conveying to them the greetings of the king and his family, and informed them that His Majesty was waiting for them in the palace. The men cheered the king at length, then proceeded in large companies behind their prince, a throng of Nubians in their wake.
The royal family was sitting beneath a large sunshade in the courtyard of the governor's palace. The ten years that had passed had wrought their changes. Seriousness of purpose, sternness of outlook, and sorrow had all left traces that time would never erase. Those most affected by the passing of time were the two queens, Tetisheri and Ahotep. The sacred mother's physique was less supple, her body tending to stoop a little, and her travails had engraved their lines on her radiant brow. All that was left of the old Tetisheri was the gleam in her eyes, and her
