The Horus Road by Pauline Gedge

Author:Pauline Gedge
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP (CANADA)

10

THE WHOLE OF WESET had celebrated the Beautiful Feast of the Valley in the month of Payni, at the day of the full moon, and the Taos had joined the crowds of hundreds streaming across the river with offerings of food, oil and wine for their dead. Ahmose had not forgotten the day of his father’s birth in Phamenoth, marking it with the usual prayers and feast as was customary for every family member living or not. Birthdays came round regularly like the various gods’ days and were occasions for happy reflection. But the Beautiful Feast of the Valley was an event of universal solemnity and rejoicing while the priests moved from tomb to tomb with incense. When the formalities were over, the relatives of the beautified settled down beside their dead to eat a meal in their presence and speak of them with love.

We have so many dead, Ahmose had thought as he watched the servants lay out the feast within Kamose’s little courtyard. Grandmother’s husband, Osiris Senakhtenra; Seqenenra, my father; two babies; Osiris Kamose; and Si-Amun, whom we are not allowed to acknowledge on this day. We go from door to sealed door laying our offerings before them, but life is so immediate at this time of the year, an explosion of fruits and grains, the excitement and anxiety of the wait for the harvest and then for Isis to cry, the preparations for the New Year festivities. Only those newly bereaved can mourn. Not that the Feast is intended as a time for grief. It exists for the sanctification of the dead and the conjuring of their memories. Behek is the only one whose loss remains fresh and painful. How much can a mere dog feel? How limited is Behek’s power to reason? Does he wait in this arid place for Kamose to come out or does he know that my brother’s essence is gone and believe it his duty to guard his long sleep?

Ahmose-onkh was kneeling in the sand with his arms around Behek’s neck. His tutor, Pa-she, stood beside him explaining something Ahmose could not hear over the hubbub of the servants’ chatter and the clink of utensils. That association is working well, Ahmose’s thoughts ran on. There were a few tantrums at first when Ahmose-onkh realized that he could no longer race about the house and grounds with an exasperated Raa in pursuit, but he seems to have not only accepted Pa-she’s discipline but be developing a trust in him. Pa-she’s weekly reports on his charge’s progress do not include that fact, of course, but it is evident in the way the boy’s behaviour has improved. Aahmesnefertari has triumphed in this as in everything else.

He glanced at his wife sitting quietly in her chair a short distance away. A wariness had grown in her of late, a habit of answering him with an abrupt yes or no, a blandness of expression that effectively hid the workings of her mind. To others it might have been interpreted as a return to the shyness of her youth, but Ahmose knew otherwise.

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