The Thebes Chronicles - Two Novels in Ancient Egypt (Book 1 & 2 Bundle)

By Rory Liam Elliott

Enter a time and place in history and the ancient past - full of love, intrigue, passion, betrayal, desire, adventure and cruelty. Follow a young woman as she becomes the first female mummy maker in all of Egypt. Author Rory Liam Elliott will take you on a journey deep into the lives of Ancient Egyptians, and the journey will be one that cannot soon be forgotten.

The Thebes Chronicles bundle contains both novels: Daughter of the Nile and The Pharaoh’s Daughter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TopOfBooks
• Release date: Nov 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301442478

Book preview

Prologue

iteru (Nile)

Old Boney, a Nile crocodile almost one hundred years old, moved slowly along the riverbank at his own pace, looking for breakfast while the sun warmed up his cold reptile’s blood.

When he found a large lump of rotting carcass, he had a hard time fitting it into his mouth. The man’s torso was sinewy and Old Boney kept trying to get it down by tossing it into the air and moving it around in his long jaws. It was a difficult task so early in the morning because the Egyptian air along the Nile was cool and the reptile’s blood did not heat up very fast.

Black and white mottled Egyptian geese flew over him, winging down closer to the earth as they moved to their morning feeding grounds – their red beaks providing a stark difference in color to their bodies.

A flock of Ibis waded in the mud, stabbing at various frogs and other things they saw in the muddy water, while trying to get vegetable matter from the bottom as well as keeping a wary lookout for the crocodiles which reigned supreme in the Nile.

A hippopotamus and her baby were nearby, creating a large mud puddle as they waded along the bottom of the river. The sun was just at the horizon and as soon as it appeared, everyone and everything seemed to spring to life. Ra had risen and Egypt was once again alive and thriving.

Old Boney continued to struggle with the man’s torso, but it was not Boney’s worn teeth that had made the ragged edge hole in the chest and it was not Boney who had removed the man’s heart after his death.

After eating the torso missing its heart as his main course, Old Boney moved sluggishly along the rich soil of the river's side, swishing aside papyrus clumps with his massive and tail, and he discovered a few more remains lying close by.

There was a human leg minus a foot, and then another a few yards further along the bank.

Hidden under some bushes were two arms and hands, and buried in a shallow grave was a man's head, which the croc uncovered last by poking a long and tooth-filled snout into the mud. After making a satisfied grunting sound, he tossed the head into the air and then swallowed it whole.

Now full and satisfied with all of the dismembered body in his now swollen belly, Old Boney raised his head and looked across the expanse of mother Nile, as puffs of moisture – visible because of the cooler morning air along the river – emerged from the nostrils at the end of his gnarled, battle-scarred and elongated head.

Eyeing the competition which had smelled the croc's meal and were headed his way, the reptile slid into the warming Nile waters and swam off, weaving its enormous tail back and forth in the mud-swirled water. He would not need to eat again for weeks.

Right after the croc's departure, a few locals came down to the riverbank to wash clothes and bathe. They yawned and stretched out their arms, and spoke softly with neighbors who were also arriving at the edge of mother Nile. Far off, someone was playing a morning hymn on a lute and the soft sounds floated over the early bathers and washer women, combining with the amber dawn light to create an Old Masters’ painting.

A light mist rose from the warm waters of the Nile and this hid the surface of the water, as well as the bathers' legs. One woman waved to a passing fisherman who was pushing his boat along close to shore, looking for a few fish who liked to make their homes in the weeds close to the bank. He stopped for a few moments, cast his net, brought in three fish and held them aloft proudly.

Shading their eyes, the group looked to the Pyramids, the tombs of past Pharaohs that seemed so tall they touched the sky. As the sun rose higher, its brilliant rays hit the white limestone covering and golden cap, sending beams of light across the Red and Black Land.

I see Ra is about to Go Forth By Day, commented an old woman.

Let's do the same, daughter. They all moved on to the day's business, as life in Ancient Egypt resumed its vibrant rhythm.

Chapter 1

(Memories of Childhood)

I am this pure lotus which

went forth from the sunshine,

which is at the nose of Re;

I have descended that I may seek it

for Horus, for I am the

pure one who issued from the fen.

They called me Meryneith. Even when I first came to them I knew my new father was already a great maker of mummies. He was able to teach me many things.

My new parents called me Mery, because they said I made them smile. I have loved them always, and still do now. Before them there was a dark time that I only see as though I was seeing it through an early morning Nile fog, where I dream in blackness. Father told me this was before I was four Nile floods old.

He also reminded me that such dark thoughts should remain in my past and that I had much brighter ones ahead of me.

This life before my life, came to me every now and then, usually as I was between the land of the living and the land of dreams. My memories of this infancy before my childhood are murky, like the water surrounding a crocodile close to the riverbank.

When I asked my father about these dreams and memories he told me that when I was older, I would learn everything about them, what they meant, and why I had taken a long voyage on a cold dark vessel over a very large sea. I often told him that I dreamt about the strange sea. It was odd because I had never gone more than a few miles beyond Waset, so I constantly thought about traveling down to the Nile Delta and trying to find this body of water.

Father told me that perhaps, one day, I would visit the Pharaoh down at his palace in Pi-Ramesses. That idea made me feel so good that all thoughts of the dark place vanished from my head.

Now, it’s harder to remember those dark days from the past because of the glorious ones in Egypt. Our weather is perfect, Mother Nile is our provider, and our people are blessed by the gods.

Life is so wonderful. I will never leave this place because it’s my entire world.

I always wanted to learn everything I could about what father did. One day, I wanted to perform the same rituals that he performed – enabling our citizens to enter the afterlife and let Anubis weigh their hearts against a feather lighter than a desert breeze. I wanted to become a doctor, too, and help the sick – especially the children.

I’ve always loved little children.

But part of me also wanted to find out why things happen, to work out who stole the treasure from a tomb, to trace the straying donkey by the marks he left on the ground, to find who stole our neighbor’s chickens, to discover who wrote the rude graffiti on the walls or burnt down my uncle’s grain store in a fit of malice.

I wanted to work out the signs and find the evidence to answer all these questions. And, I thought, it would be useful for a mummy-maker to be able to diagnose why people have died.

When I was eight Nile floods old, father told me it would take a good while longer to learn everything about preparing my people for the afterlife. He also told me that there had never been a woman mummy maker before.

When the time comes, I told him fiercely – stomping my foot and trying to make myself look much older – I’ll write to the government department in charge of mummy makers and get my permit. You'll see.

Father smiled and patted my short, black hair.

Mother fixed my hair every morning after we bathed and she brushed it and brushed it, before carefully fastening a decoration into it. It always felt so good when mother brushed my hair because I loved the feel of the brush against my skin and the way that my hair looked afterwards.

My favorite hair decoration was the little gold-colored Ibis bird which father bought me one day while we were at the market. I remember that day vividly because there were rare storm clouds off in the distance and I kept looking at them. When it first rained, and the thunder and lightning came rolling across Thebes, I thought the sky was falling and I ran screaming into our house.

But the long nights when the sky was dark and the moon shone brightly filled me with peace. Thoth, the moon god, the god of wisdom, was always my favorite god and we kept several statues of him in our home. I know that Thoth invented god's words, mdwt ntr, which is the name of our hieroglyphics and the way in which we write things down.

Father was always telling me, Yes, yes, daughter. When the time comes we shall apply for the permit so you can perform the rituals, because I kept asking and asking him when I could start to prepare citizens for their afterlife.

I know you can do anything your little heart wishes, he told me. You were always that way, and so may you remain in the gods' favor for your entire life. As well as getting the permit you need, I've no doubt you'll tell those old blowhards in the government just how much you need that permit and where to go to get it, as well.

When father told me that, I laughed. I thought about everything that surrounded me and about wanting to do so many things that sometimes I couldn’t fall asleep at night.

I thought about when I would grow up and who I would marry and who my friends would be, and a lot about our country of Egypt, and what it would be like in the future.

The annual inundation, a gift from Mother Nile, is at the core of every citizen's life and I had a hard time imagining what it would be like without it.

All of this thinking often kept me awake and mother had to come and sing to me to get me to stop thinking so I could get some sleep. She covered me with a light blanket when the nights grew colder, and kissed my forehead.

She said that if I never slept my heart would be so full that I wouldn’t be able to cram any more things in there and that it could burst. I had seen a heart in my father’s workshop and I certainly didn’t want mine to break because I was thinking too hard and doing so much.

My great uncle, the great tax scribe Suten Anu, taught me how to read and write almost as soon as I could hold the stylus and knew what writing was. I cried when I learned that girls weren't taught how to read or write most of the time, but great uncle promised me that he would show me how to make the hieroglyphics and what they meant, so that I could read as well as write.

I thought that the little pictures in the writing were so expressive, and I often drew them for hours on end so I could write perfectly. I wrote my name then drew a cartouche around it, just like the Pharaoh had ordered with names. I heard that he had once said, speaking from his temple, So shall it be written. So shall it be done.’’

When I went around our house practicing those words, mother used to laugh because I looked and sounded so grown up. Sometimes, when I was feeling particularly energetic I even frightened the cat by shouting the phrase with all of the pomposity of the Pharaoh that I could muster.

Great uncle was an important man who took care of taxes for one of the biggest prefectures in Thebes. Without these learned men – these scribes – our people couldn’t conduct business or sell their wares in the marketplace, or do most other things that make life so wonderful in our land of Egypt. I even thought about becoming a scribe before I decided to become a mummy maker.

Without my great uncle I wouldn't have the knowledge to write down all of my father's teachings and would soon forget them. I will remember him always for that gift.

We often sat in great uncle's garden and as he spoke the words, he would guide my hand so that I could learn how to put the word on paper. He told me that making the hieroglyphics correctly was important so that I could read them later and understand what I had written. If I was not able to read it, and couldn’t remember what on earth it was, that would be a big waste of time.

One time a bird landed in the fountain and took a bath. Great uncle snatched away the parchment quickly because he told me that you couldn't write on wet parchment. That made me think a lot about parchment and perhaps, how to make it easier to write on.

Great uncle said that those who came after us could learn from our mistakes, but unless we were able to let them know how we came to do what we did, our great Egyptian civilization would come to an end.

I cried when I first heard this but he told me quickly, Not right away, my child. It won't happen immediately.

Great uncle's cat, Isis, would brush by my hand as I stretched out, trying to rid myself of the cramping caused by clutching my stylus so hard. I’ve always loved animals and knew that when I grew up, I would have many cats and two white horses. Nothing else would do, I often told myself.

I had seen horses run like the wind across the desert sand when my parents took me out to the oasis, and we watched horse traders showing off their animals. They were so beautiful that they belonged with the gods and I felt we were blessed to have such creatures with us while we were on earth, and in Egypt.

I knew that the two horses I would have when I grew up would be enough to pull a vehicle like the one that the Pharaoh owned. Father called them chariots and they were so exciting to see fly along the roadway through our town. I only saw them once or twice but the memories will stick with me forever.

I wanted to call the first horse after my friend Thoth, who was named after the god. Thoth was about the same age as me but I don’t think he had such a happy life. He was very thin and poor and sometimes had bruises and cuts on his legs as if someone had beaten him.

I knew I would call the other horse after an older boy who lived down the street. His name was Kemsa and he was always smiling at me. I liked him a lot and I knew that I would marry either Thoth or Kemsa as soon as I could, when I got older.

Kemsa was Nubian, but father didn’t share the mistrust, even hatred, which most Egyptian citizens have of Nubians. He told me that Egypt and Nubia were once at war. Kemsa's skin was the rich color of ebony wood and Thoth's was like mine – a shade lighter than my parents and much lighter than most other Egyptians.

Father told me that he didn't know why people were different colors. He supposed that it was so in all of nature, and forever would be until the end of time, and that Ra designed everyone and every creature that way, because each of them had a purpose in Egypt and each had to make its own way in the world.

Father also told me that it didn’t matter what your skin color was and that it was very important to live a pure life and be fair and just and kind and respectful in all of your actions. He said that if a person did that, when they were ready to face the Lord of the Dead, that Anubis would be able to weigh their heart justly and they would join those who have passed before them.

I never really liked the way everyone talked about Anubis, the Jackal God of the Dead. He seemed a powerful god to me and I wondered how much of this power he would keep as the years passed. Someone who has the power of death over others is always feared. I suppose that is because most citizens want to be alive as long as they can.

I often wondered where other people lived and whether there were other lands like Egypt, and how big the world was. I didn’t know how the stars stay up in the sky at night and what they were made from and why the weather was always different, sometimes subtly, every day. Father said that each of us had many truths to be discovered when we live our lives, and that this was the task that Ra has assigned to all Egyptians.

Mother and I often sat at a small table in her bedroom and she used to teach me about applying makeup. Some was for protection from Ra's strong rays and some was just for 'beauty' she told me while blushing, and with a smile.

She loved her cosmetics and lined up the little pots and jars of creams and oils and colors in a neat row.

I loved one color, which was just like a Nile sunset and mother used a small brush and applied it to my cheeks. She told me that it made them look like little pomegranates.

At first, I was afraid of pomegranates. I thought that they were bleeding and ran crying to mother as I cut into the fruit for the first time. Mother, mother – the blood! So much blood!

She shushed me and told me that pomegranates always looked like that and were as Mother Isis had created them. We use them to make our lips the color of poppies and it makes our eyes alluring. Some women cannot afford makeup so they use pomegranates on their cheeks.

After that lesson I asked her what alluring meant and she paused for a moment, then smiled. Child, being alluring is what attracts men to woman, and women to men. In Egypt both men and women wear makeup, and the children as well. When you grow up you'll know what alluring means. You'll see a boy or a man and your heart will race really fast, and you’ll feel hot, and your skin will get clammy.

Mother, I told her, that sounds like you’re getting sick, I frowned.

Mery, you'll know better when you get older. It can often lead to marriage, so it’s a good thing, and it will make you feel like you are standing on top of one of the Pyramid close to the sky, looking out over all of Egypt.

I wanted to feel like that, so I told myself to wait patiently for love and to always try and be this ‘alluring’.

After wiping off the pomegranate juice, mother calmed me further by drawing a funny little face on the copper makeup mirror which father had attached to the wall.

When we were done making up our faces, we always showed father. When I first learned how to apply cosmetics, father would hide a smile by looking down at his sandaled feet.

I first thought he was trying to see where he was going.

At parties, mother took her makeup box and placed it under her chair, just like all of the other women. Every now and then she and the other women took their boxes from where they were hidden and refreshed their makeup. Then they replaced the box neatly under their chairs. It all seemed rather complicated to me but I still wanted to learn everything about makeup, and so many other things.

Chapter 2

(Mery)

Be a shelter, make safe your shore,

See how your quay is infested with crocodiles!

Both great uncle and father told me that writing, god's words, was the way that each generation's thoughts and knowledge are passed onto those who follow us in this earthly life. It lasts a lot longer than stories told by one person to another, which as we know can change over time until the story cannot be recognized.

Perhaps one day, I thought, there will also be places where the written words of a people will be kept safe for all to read.

I could imagine all of those papyrus scrolls stored in jars for all eternity. What if people ran out of room? What if sacred scarabs ate them? I often followed a scarab and studied its shiny and colorful carapace. Of course, I was careful not to harm the sacred beetle.

I could read the hieroglyphics carved into stone pillars in our many temples, but writing on papyrus was so quick and I couldn't imagine getting a copper chisel out every time I wanted to put a thought down! I wondered what people used in other places than Egypt. I wondered what they would use in another time? Do other people use their own kind of god's words or do all people use hieroglyphics?

As I was thinking about all of this, I figured out how to make a new thing to store my own stories and knowledge in. I called it a book and the name came to me suddenly as did the idea, when I decided to cut pieces of papyrus into squares, lay them on top of each other, and then bind them with a couple of thongs of leather, one on each end of the stack of papyrus sheets. It took up a whole lot less room than rolls of papyrus scrolls and it was easy to write in as well.

When I first showed this to father he told me he had never seen such a place to keep words before. I thought that, one day, people could use my books to store their knowledge in and I would be famous. Perhaps the Pharaoh would invite me to court to read my stories.

Mother made canopic jars and then fired them in a kiln we had at the back of the house. I would also help her decorate them. She didn't know what the words meant because she merely copied them, so I would speak them as we carefully decorated the jars with red and black and a glorious blue the color of lapis lazuli. She would laugh and shake her head and tell me she was too old to learn how to read, and that I was simply too young to teach her.

************

I wanted to teach so much that I would set a few stools outside when Ra started to go down each day and before supper, and with my book on my knee, would tell the other children stories as they gathered around, often squatting down onto the sandy soil of the alleyway or on lintel stones in the doorways of their nearby houses, as children do.

The houses which surrounded us were owned by other mummy makers, as we had our own special neighborhood.

Sometimes my friend Thoth was there, but a lot of times he was not. I couldn't tell if he wanted to learn to read, or if he just wanted some company and a friend to talk to. I loved to talk. That older boy Kemsa was always there.

One day, after the other children had left, Kemsa brought me a beautiful flower. I looked at him in awe as it was the first time we had actually been face to face. When my skin started to feel clammy and my heart beat faster, I told myself that perhaps he was as attracted to me as I was to him, and that this must be the 'alluring' that mother told me about.

He was as shy as I was when he handed the beautiful flower to me. His smile was so infectious that I smiled, too. Finally, he introduced himself as Kemsa, and I, making a short bow, said Meryneith, but I then added, my friends call me Mery.

Well, little one, he told me, I shall call you Mery.

After a quick salute, he ran off but looked back before disappearing around the corner. My heart raced and I made a short prayer to Isis that I would keep Kemsa as my friend for all eternity.

I remember the time when my other friend, Thoth, got jealous and jumped on Kemsa's back and they fought. I tried to break them up by pulling Thoth away from Kemsa because I didn't want either of them to get hurt, but couldn't, and my dress got ripped.

When I asked mother about it later she just told me it was the way of boys, and not to worry about it. We sat together afterwards and talked about boys and girls, as she helped me to repair the hole in my dress.

After that incident, I could see Thoth looking at me all of the time and especially, as we both grew older, his eyes never left me. Mother said that it was probably love, but not the same kind of love that mother and father showed to me. She said that this kind of love was what happened between a man and a women after they were married.

I asked her many questions about this but she told me, When you are older, child, I'll tell you about the love between a man and a woman. It can be so strong that often, it will transcend time and live through the ages. Mother lost me, then, because I wasn't sure what transcend meant and I started to be afraid that this man and woman love was something really strange.

I never knew where Thoth lived and when I asked him about that one day, he mumbled something and then ran down the alleyway and around a corner. Mother told me to invite Thoth over for supper because I had told her he was always hungry.

I asked Thoth about it but he refused to tell me who beat him regularly and when I told him that mother or father had never hit me, he looked very, very sad.

After that, almost every day, I would wrap up some of mother's good bread in a cloth and take it out with me when I was telling the other children stories, give it to Thoth, and watch him eat that first – tearing off large chunks and wolfing it down like his life depended on it. Most of the time I would also take out a piece of fruit and he would always tuck that away for later.

One day, Thoth gave me a scarab carved from a wonderful dark blue piece of lapis lazuli, and right after that when I saw him later, he'd been beaten because I could see it in his wounded eyes and on his legs.

Ever since then, I've loved lapis lazuli. I kept Thoth's scarab on a thong around my neck and whenever I wasn't wearing it, I hung it on a peg on the wall over my bed. Mother had an amulet made from lapis lazuli also. Father had saved up for a very long time before he bought it for her.

We wore our amulets proudly as mother and I went shopping in the market and I knew that everyone looked at us.

Mother said later that I was developing into a beautiful young woman and that soon, I might have many suitors. I asked about them and what they were and mother just smiled. Soon, child, when you are a few more Nile floods old...soon I'll tell you all about suitors and making a family, and many other things.

I wanted to write that down right away, when mother eventually told me about it, so I did.

*************

Suddenly, father coughed to catch my attention, and I looked up. Watch, Mery. See how this heart is the center of a man's soul and the seat of his intelligence.

Is it the seat of a woman's intelligence, too?

Father gave me a stern look. Yes, child, now help me with the herbs and linen and sawdust so we may make our neighbor look good for his family.

I picked up a sweet smelling jar of herbs and took it over to father, after laying down my stylus and book and getting up off the low stool. The herbs were made by a group of women who lived close to the temple complex, but I had never seen them because father told me one day that mummy makers were not welcomed by the priests there.

I asked him why and he told me, Because I think that they want to get as much money from the grieving families as they can, first. Then he just shook his head and pretended not to care about the subject.

One time, I tried my own mixture of herbs at home and pounded and pounded them with a pestle and mortar. When father was in the mummy room one day I carefully took the jar in to show him. He sniffed it and stepped back, with his eyes watering.

I guess this citizen won't mind what herbs we put inside of him because he's no longer with us. Let's use them and make him happy. Then, still with watering eyes, father put the herbs inside a body and sewed the wound shut. After that, he put the jar aside. Then he moved it further aside.

Eventually, he moved it outside completely.

I didn't think he really liked what I had made, but I learned later how to do it the right way. I didn't want to make Anubis angry because someone was standing in front of him with a light heart, but reeking of garlic and other foul-smelling herbs.

****************

One day, right in the middle of flood