Mara, Daughter of the Nile by McGraw Eloise Jarvis

Author:McGraw, Eloise Jarvis [McGraw, Eloise Jarvis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Historical, General, Royalty
ISBN: 0613033264
Google: ttKZPwAACAAJ
Amazon: 0140319298
Barnesnoble: 0140319298
Goodreads: 406186
Publisher: Puffin
Published: 1981-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The Signal

BUT WAITING was hardest. A day dragged by, then another, without word from the priest. Sheftu had spoken to Ashor early; the diggers were arranged for and waiting, though they knew not what their task was to be. Nekonkh was waiting, the Beetle provisioned and ready to spirit the men away. The king was waiting for word, Mara waiting to carry it, Sheftu waiting, in a torment of suspense, to act.

For the first time in six years the wheels of his secret life had ground to a dead halt. All plans hinged on one now, and that one hung like an unanswered question on the air, growing hourly more urgent. It was all Sheftu could do to grace the court of Hatshepsut with unchanged serenity, to behave as usual under the eyes of his household. Hardest of all was to hide from Mara the strain he was feeling, to parry her questions and then laugh at her anger. Each night she came to the inn for news, and he could tell her nothing. Their conversations were like duels. Rather than dreading the task which still hung over him, he now began to long for it, that the issue might be settled. Inactivity ached like a tooth.

Soon after noon on the fourth day, restlessness led him down to the barracks of the queen’s bodyguard, whose quarters and parade field occupied a large open area to the rear of the palace grounds. He found Khofra sitting on a hard chair in his severe and cell-like quarters, waiting for the bugle which would summon him to his afternoon inspection of the troops.

“Come in, my lord, come in!” the old man greeted him, waving to a second, and even harder, chair. “Sit down, and test the rigors of military life! Though I promise this is luxury compared to what those poor devils on the parade grounds yonder call their own. Ai, well, there’s no other way to make soldiers of them. Hard chairs, hard beds, hard fighting.”

“And a general as hard as they,” suggested Sheftu, sitting down.

Khofra gave his soundless laugh. “Aye, they look up to me, knowing I’ve slept on rocky ground oftener than they’ve slept in their couches. They’re coming on, Lord Sheftu, they’re shaping up. Someday we’ll have an army here, instead of a crowd of idlers. But I warn you—” The old general lowered his voice, and his face grew grim. “I’ve promised them action. Campaigns, foreign battlefields, victories like those we knew in the old days, for the glory of Egypt. Take care you produce them.”

“Never fear! There’ll be action in plenty once Thutmose takes command. By the Feather, our empire’s in a sorry mess, Haut Khofra!” Sheftu got up and began to pace. “Every week a new dispatch comes in. There’s another uprising in Nubia, a bad one, and an outbreak on the border farther north. Worse yet, the King of Kadesh has stirred up every city king in northern Palestine and Syria—they’re banding together to

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