Summoning one of the palace chamberlains, Pharaoh ordered him to treat Djedi the magician hospitably, and to give him fifty pieces of gold as a reward. The man then accompanied Djedi as they both left the scene.
Prince Khafra was sorely stricken — his eyes bursting with the remorselessness in his heart, his steely face like a harbinger of death. As for his father, Khufu, he did not waste his outrage in a fit of shouting and wild gesticulations. Rather, he held it in check with the force of his inner will, transforming it into a daring resolve that could level great mountains and make the cosmic powers stir.
He turned to his vizier, asking him grandly, “What do you think, Hemiunu: does it avail to be warned against Fate?”
The vizier raised his eyebrows in thought, but nothing issued from his lips, white with panic and dismay.
“I see that you are afraid to say the truth, and are considering disavowing your own wisdom in order to please me,” said the king, scoldingly. “But no, Hemiunu, your lord is too great to be upset by being told the truth.”
Though not a flatterer, Hemiunu was a coward. Nonetheless, he was sincerely loyal to the king and the crown prince, and took pity on their pain. When the two appeared as though they would not be angry at what he might say, he replied, almost inaudibly, “My lord! I am in accord — with the words of wisdom that the gods imparted to our forebears, and to their propagator, Kagemni, on the question of Destiny — which hold that precaution cannot thwart Fate.”
Khufu looked at his heir apparent and asked, “And what, O Prince, is your view of this matter?”
The prince looked back at his father with eyes blazing like a beast caught in a trap.
Pharaoh smiled as he declaimed, “If Fate really was as people say, then creation itself would be absurd. The wisdom of life would be negated, the nobility of man would be debased. Diligence and the mere appearance of it would be the same; so would labor and laziness, wakefulness and sleep, strength and weakness, rebellion and obedience. No, Fate is a false belief to which the strong are not fashioned to submit.”
The zeal fired in his breast, Commander Arbu shouted, “Sublime is your wisdom, my lord!”
Pharaoh, still smiling, said with absolute composure, “Before us is a suckling child, only an easy distance away. Come then, Commander Arbu — prepare a group of chariots, which I will lead to On — so that I myself may look upon this tiny offspring of the Fates.”
“Will Pharaoh himself be going?” Hemiunu asked, amazed.
“If I don't go now to defend my own throne,” said Pharaoh, laughing, “then when will it be right for me to do so? Very well, now — I invite you all to ride with me to witness the tremendous battle between Khufu and the Fates.”
3
Pharaoh's squadron of one hundred war chariots streamed out of the palace, manned by two hundred of the toughest troopers of the Great House Guards. Khufu — amidst a cohort of the princes and his companions — took their lead, — with Khafra at his right and Arbu on his left.
They sped away to the northeast, shaking the ground of the valley like an earthquake, along the right branch of the Nile, heading toward the city of On. Their — wheels rattling like thunder, the rushing vehicles, with their magnificently adorned horses, kicked up mountains of dust behind them that hid them from the eyes of beautiful Memphis. With the colossal men riding them — like statues bedecked with swords, bows, and arrows, and armored with shields — they reminded the sleeping earth of the soldiers of Mina. They too had thrown up their own dust on these same roads hundreds of years before, bearing to the North an undeniable victory, forging the nation's unity as their glorious legacy.
They rolled onward over the stones and gravel, led by an all-powerful man, the very mention of whose name humbled hearts and caused eyes to be lowered. Yet they rode not to invade a nation or to combat an army. Rather, to besiege a nursing baby boy still in his swaddling clothes, blinking his eyes at the light of the world — launched by the words of a wizard that threatened the mightiest throne on earth, shaking the stoutest hearts in creation.
They covered the floor of the valley with surpassing speed, circumventing villages and hamlets like a fleeting arrow, fixing their eyes onto that fearsome horizon that loomed over the suckling child whom the Fates had made to play such a perilous role.
From afar there appeared to them a cloud of dust whose source their eyes couldn't make out, until, the distance slowly dwindling, they — were able to discern a little band of horsemen crossing in their direction. They had no doubt that this group came from the district of Ra.
The horsemen drew closer, and it became clear that they — were mounted soldiers trailing behind a single rider. The nearer they approached, the clearer it seemed they were pursuing that rider. Then, as the king's squadron came right upon their goal, they gasped with disbelief — for at their lead was a woman seated bareback on a stallion. The plaits of her hair had come undone, and — were strewn about behind her by the wind, like pennants on the head of a sail, and she looked exhausted. Meanwhile, the others had caught up — with her from behind, surrounding her on every side.
This happened just as the king arrived with his retinue. The royal chariot had to slow down to avoid a collision, though neither Pharaoh nor any of his men paid much heed to either the woman being pursued, or her pursuers. They presumed these were policemen carrying out some official duty or other, and would have passed them by without any contact but for the woman calling out to them, “Help me, O Soldiers — Help me! Those men won't let me reach Pharaoh….”
Pharaoh's chariot halted, and so did those behind him. He looked at the men encircling the woman and called to them with his commanding voice, “Summon her to me.”
Yet, ignorant of he who had made this command, they did not respond. One of the horsemen's officers came forward, saying roughly, “We are guards from On who have come to execute an order from its high priest. From what city are you, and what do you want?”
The officer's folly enraged Pharaoh's troopers. Arbu was about to berate him, but Pharaoh flashed him a hidden sign. Seething, he remained silent. The invocation of the Ra priest's name had diverted Pharaoh from his anger and made him think. Hoping to draw the officer into conversation, Khufu asked him, “Why were you pursuing this woman?”
Self-importantly, the officer replied, “I am not obliged to account for my mission except to my chief.”
Pharaoh shouted with thunderous fury, “Release this woman!”
The soldiers — were now certain that they — were dealing — with a formidable figure. They gave up on the object of their chase, who had scurried to the king's chariot, cowering beneath it fearfully, calling out all the while, “Help me sir, please help me!”
Arbu clambered down from his chariot and marched forcefully up to the officer. When the officer saw the sign of the eagle and Pharaoh's emblem on Arbu's shoulder, terror defeated him. Sheathing his sword, he stood to attention and gave a military salute, calling out to his men, “Hail the commander of Pharaoh's guards!”
They all returned their swords to their scabbards, and stood in file like statues.
When the woman heard what the officer said, she realized that she was in the presence of the Great House Guards. Standing up before Arbu, she said, “Sir, are you truly the head of our lord the king's guards? Naught but the truth of the gods is guiding me to him… for I fled my mistress, sir, in order to go to Pharaoh's palace, to the king's doorstep — for love of whom the lips of every Egyptian, man or woman, would gladly kiss.”
“Do you have some wish to be fulfilled?” Arbu asked her.
The woman replied, panting, “Yes, sir. I harbor a menacing secret that I wish to disclose to the Living God.”
Pharaoh listened more intently, as Arbu asked her, “And what is this menacing secret, my good woman?”
“I will divulge it to the Holy Eminence,” shesaid, entreatingly.
“I am his faithful servant, discreet with his secrets,” Arbu assured her.
The woman hesitated, glancing anxiously at those present. Her color was pale, her eyes darted back and forth, and her heart was pounding hard. The commander saw that he could entice her to speak by being soft with
