Cassie immediately perked up after the first sip. “Amazing.” She regarded her beverage with surprise. It was a heavenly mixture of strong coffee brewed without a trace of bitterness and laced with cardamom.
Since nothing came in To Go cups, they were obliged to take seats and patiently sip their drinks in the shade.
Cassie counted exactly two cars and three bicycles on the highway during the entire time they were inside.
“There isn’t much traffic around here,” she observed to John.
He chuckled softly. “That is because most of the people who live in this area travel by camel.”
The pythia gave an embarrassed grin. “I see your point.”
After paying the coffee vendor, they climbed back into the SUV to continue their journey.
The jolt of caffeine made Cassie feel more talkative. She decided to quiz John and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the front seat beside him. “It’s kind of strange that you work for the Arkana,” she began.
Their driver glanced at her in surprise. “How so?”
“Well, I mean this part of the world is pretty heavily Islamic. I was told I couldn’t walk around outside in a tank top in Khartoum without people staring at me. Not exactly a woman-friendly culture so how did you ever learn about a female-centric group like the Arkana?”
“Oh, I see.” John focused his attention on the road. “As I told you, my family never converted to Islam, but long before that, even during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, Nubia remained a strongly matriarchal society.”
“Really? In school I read that Nubia pretty much followed Egypt’s culture,” Cassie countered.
Erik butted in. “And what has working for the Arkana taught you about overlord history, toots?”
Cassie turned her head to regard the paladin. “That overlords lie a lot.”
Everyone laughed at her observation.
Erik continued. “I mean how many people know about the black pharaohs of Egypt?”
“Not me,” Cassie offered tentatively. “When did this happen?”
Griffin swiveled sideways, so he could address the whole group. “During a period of Egyptian political instability in the eighth century BCE, a Nubian king named Piye invaded Egypt and was crowned pharaoh. He and his descendants held the throne for a hundred years until Egypt was invaded by the Assyrians. They, in turn, pushed the Nubians back across the border.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Yet another factoid swept under the rug by mainstream historians.”
Griffin continued. “While Nubia and Egypt shared cultural similarities, Nubia retained its matriarchal traditions long after Egypt had forgotten its own.”
“So, you mean Egypt started out matriarchal too?”
“All of Africa practiced matrilineal descent and vested power in the hands of women until the coming of the Semites and the Kurgans,” the scrivener replied. “Egypt lost its matriarchal customs completely by the time of the New Kingdom. The old goddesses were supplanted by the likes of Amun-Ra, the overlord sun god. While Nubia accepted many of Egypt’s spiritual beliefs, its political system still found room for female leadership. For example, the Kandakes.”
“What are the Kandakes?”
John answered. “They were the ruling queens of the ancient Nubian kingdom of Kush. That is to distinguish them from queen-consorts who were the spouses of ruling kings. The Kandakes ruled in their own right.”
Griffin picked up the thread of the conversation. “Some ancient historians refer to them as Candaces, thinking that their personal names were all ‘Candace’ but it’s a corruption of the Nubian word kentake which means ‘queen.’ Beginning in the fourth century BCE, a disproportionate number of the rulers of Kush were female. No doubt, that’s attributable to their inheritance laws.”
“Among the Nubian people, the royal bloodline was traced through the mother,” John said. “The queen mother would also be called a Kandake, and it was she who chose the successor to the throne from among her children. It was not the eldest son who inherited the title, but the worthiest individual whether male or female.”
“The existence of the Kandakes was documented by Greek and Roman historians, so we know they aren’t a myth,” Griffin added. “There is even an apocryphal story of a Kandake who intimidated Alexander the Great to such a degree that he never attempted to invade Kush.”
“Many of the Kandakes were known as warrior-queens,” John said. “The bas-reliefs of the Kandake named Shanakdakheto show her wearing armor and carrying a spear. Her pyramid is the largest in Meroe.”
“Wait. What?” Cassie stopped him. “There are pyramids around here?”
“More than in Egypt,” John answered. “My people built hundreds of them. Most are at Meroe, but some are across the river. You’ll see them when we arrive. Several are very close to the mountain of Jebel Barkal.”
“If I’m not mistaken, the construction style is slightly different,” Griffin interjected. “The bases are narrower, and the angle to the apex is steeper.”
“That is true,” John agreed. “They are made of red sandstone because it is so plentiful in the desert. Sadly, that means they will erode faster too.”
John suspended their conversation. “Look there,” he instructed. “You can see Jebel Barkal already.”
Cassie peered through Erik’s window to see a massive bluff rising off in the distance on the other side of the river. “The Pure Mountain,” she murmured.
Chapter 37—Tyro Maniac
“You wanted to see me, dear?” Faye stood in the open doorway of Maddie’s office in the vault.
The chatelaine looked up distractedly. She was knee-deep in piles of paperwork, stacks of ledgers, computer printouts, and several different sized monitors all perched precariously on the corners of her desk.
At the sight of Faye, she smiled with relief and edged around the clutter to clear off a chair for her visitor. “Hi, Faye. Thanks for coming in. Have a seat.”
She assisted the old woman to a chair and then paused before sitting down as a new thought struck her. “We need some quiet time to talk, but it’s like Grand Central Station around here lately. I’m training a new batch of tyros, and they won’t give me a minute’s peace.” Maddie strode to the door
