Sekma by Nel Havas

Author:Nel Havas [Havas, Nel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Night of Knives

The city of Aneb-Hetch had been the ancient capital of Egypt since the days of legendary King Menes, far into the dim past. It was located at the southernmost corner of the Delta and stood on that part of the River where began the long, long line of pyramids of many kings, sitting just inside the desert on the west bank of the River; indeed, from the city the Great Pyramid of Khufu was but one iteru away and could be seen in the distance, if one stood upon the battlements. It was here during my first days in Egypt, as I viewed those enormous monuments, that my heart – which had been in denial of all the terrible things that had happened – at last felt that I had been uprooted from my home and taken into a foreign land. I and the other captives in the caravan from Terqa stopped at this city for the night, and, although we had entered the kingdom of Egypt six days earlier, we had only seen the barren Sinai Desert. Then we caught sight of the great River Nile, a river out of histories and fables, about which I had heard since I was little. And whenever I was told of the great River, I would then be told of the pyramids, which were claimed to be larger and more perfectly built than our own ziggurats. I could not believe the claim, for I could not imagine anything rivaling the size and beauty of the ziggurats of the City of Terqa. But here was the proof of the claim, and my breath caught in my throat that I should see such a wonder, and it was true about how huge, how marvelous they were and how they were glorious to behold. But I saw them as a captive.

The next day we were herded onto boats to complete the journey to the King’s city and we looked over the water, out into the desert to the West, and watched as we passed tomb after tomb as the hours went by. I thought, yes, they were beautifully built and so perfectly smooth, brilliant, a dazzlingly pure white under the Sun. Yet my heart made me think of them as dragon’s teeth, and I thought them hateful for all their beauty, for I felt despair that I was seeing them at all, for I was here and far from my home.

When the Great King Ahmose was still a very young man and Crown Prince, he had decided that when the day of his kingship had come he would move his capital away from Aneb-Hetch and take it southward to the Great Bend in the River Nile, where he would be about equal distance away from the frontiers of the kingdom. His decision was not from cowardice, but the opposite. He had been a warrior prince since he was old enough to drive a chariot and at seventeen years of age he was an experienced general, a veteran of many battles, and had a reputation for victory.

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