The Forest of Myrrh
A novel by Jerry Dubs
The Forest of Myrrh is published by Imhotep Literary LLC
jerrydubs@imhotepliterary.com
This book is a work of fiction. Although based on historical events and figures, the names, characters, places, and incidents described in the novel are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright 2014 by Gerald B. Dubs
All rights reserved.
Copy editing by Suzanne S. Barnhill
and Ted Palik teddpal@hotmail.com
Cover designed by Kyle Mohler
kcmohlerdesign@gmail.com
ISBN 978-0-9846717-4-8
Novels by Jerry Dubs
IMHOTEP NOVELS
Imhotep, published 2010
The Buried Pyramid, published 2013
The Forest of Myrrh, published 2014
The Field of Reeds, published 2015
SUTI THE SCRIBE
Suti and the Broken Staff, published 2016
OTHER FICTION
Kaleidoscope, published 2011
The Earth Is My Witness, published 2011
For you,
thank you for your continued interest
in the journey of Tim Hope
Author's Note
“The Forest of Myrrh” is the third novel in a tetralogy about the ancient Egyptian architect, scribe, vizier, and physician named Imhotep.
Although the stories are peopled with actual historical figures who lived through recorded events in well-known places, these are novels, not histories. And, be warned, they are novels in which time travel occurs.
If this is the first “Imhotep” novel you have downloaded, I suggest putting it aside until you have read the first two novels. These are time-travel stories, you don't need the added confusion of reading them out of order.
Which brings me to the point of this note.
The first novel in this series is “Imhotep.” The second is “The Buried Pyramid.” The novel in your hands, “The Forest of Myrrh,” is the third of the series. The fourth is “The Field of Reeds.”
“Suti and the Broken Staff,” another novel set in ancient Egypt, continues the story.
Jerry Dubs, May 2014, updated August, 2015, October, 2015, and December 2016.
Table of Contents
Novels by Jerry Dubs
Author's Note
Table of Contents
Characters
Run Away!
Blood Mingled
Death in the Desert
Summoned
Governor Threshen
King Huni
Discontent
Bloody Clues
Akila and Hapu
A Suspect
The Hunchback
Weprehwy
Autopsy
Lessons
Bata's Dream
Brewing
Governor Threshen
Revolt
Hyenas
In Flight
Tehna
The Two Lands in Flight
The Road to Khmunu
Searching
Alone in the Two Lands
Crossroads
Awakening
Escape
Sailing Southward
Weneg's Confession
The Temple of Khnum
Preparations
Departure
Saved
Through the time portal
Reconciliation
Seni
Time
Hope
Maya
Mut-Nofret’s Plan
Sitre
Djeser-Djeseru
Genomes
Dreams
Ideas
Ta Netjer
Preparations
Justice
Deception
For the Glory of Amun
Yuya
Ty
Messengers
Kill The Women
Linked
Fate
Pwenet
Arrival
Everything Is Possible
Conquering Warrior
Approaching Tadjoura
Interrogation
King Parahu and Queen Ati
Feast
Everything Is Possible
Attack
Into the forest
Fallen
The Search
Yuya in Pursuit
From the Pit
The Knife of Djoser
Survival
Traitor
Exiled
Departure
Things That Are True
The Field of Reeds
Kebu the survivor
Baboons
The Fist of Amun
Characters
2630 BCE
Near the end of the Third Dynasty of The Two Lands
IMHOTEP’S HOUSEHOLD IN INEB-HEDJ
Imhotep, vizier, royal physician, royal architect, chief scribe
Meryt, his wife
Maya, their 8-year-old daughter
Bata, their friend
Akila, Imhotep’s lover when he was Tim Hope
THE COURT AT WASET
King Huni, fifth king of the Third Dynasty
Djefatnebti, his wife
Setka, his son
General Wetka, commander of the army
Bek, captain of King Huni’s personal guards
Kewab, a captain
Baufra, Isesi, Teta, Weneg, soldiers under his command
Itisen, governor of the nome called Wast
IN CITY OF INEB-HEDJ
Threshen, governor of the nome called White Fortress
Nekaure and Hemaka, palace guards
Sabni, Threshen’s brother
Redji, Djefatsen, Djefatnebti, servant girls
Weshptah, scribe
Paneb, tomb artist and Imhotep’s oldest friend
Taki, his wife
Dedi, their daughter
Hapu, their daughter and Imhotep’s assistant
Didia, a potter
Djati, a jeweler
Kanefer, a baker
IN CITY OF IUNU
Hetephernebti, Voice of Re
Amtes, wbt-priestess in the Temple of Re
Bernib, Voice of Re (successor to Hetephernebti)
Tarset, initiate at Temple of Re
Nit, a friend of Imhotep
Ptah-Shepses, a laborer
Nofret, his wife
Sennedjem, governor of the nome called Heq-at
1494 BCE
During the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose I
THE COURT AT WASET
Pharaoh Thutmose I
Queen Ahmose, his wife
General Amenmose, their eldest son
Wadjmose, their second son
Hatshepsut, their daughter
Yuf, steward to Queen Ahmose
Mut-Nofret, a harem wife
Akheperenre, 10, her son by Thutmose I
1467 BCE
During the reign of Pharaoh Hatshepsut
IMHOTEP’S HOUSEHOLD IN WASET
Imhotep
Maya, his daughter, Keeper of Wardrobe for Pharaoh Hatshepsut
Pentu, her husband
Neferhotep, charioteer, son of Maya and Pentu, grandson of Imhotep
Akila, Imhotep’s lover
THE COURT IN WASET
Pharaoh Hatshepsut
Senenmut, Hatshepsut’s architect and lover
Meira-Hatshepsut, 6, Hatshepsut’s daughter by Senenmut
Neferu-Re, 8, Hatshepsut’s daughter, by Thutmose II
Thutmose III, Hatshepsut’s step-son
Nehsy, chancellor
Ahmose, a
dmiral
Sitre, (formerly known as Hapu), Hatshepsut’s physician
Hapuseneb, first priest of Amun
Ty, Overseer of the Treasury
Menna, Scribe of the Fields
IN THE PROVINCE OF TA-SETI
Seni, governor in city of Kerma
Sabestet, his chamberlain
Bintanath, a masseuse
Hepu, first priest of Hathor
Yuya, a Medjay soldier
PLACES
Abu, island in southern Egypt, home of temple of Khnum
Coptos, river city on trade route
Edfu, home of soldier Weneg
Ineb-Hedj, home of Imhotep
Iunu, home of Temple of Re
Kerma, capital of the province of Ta-Seti
Khmunu, home of Temple of Thoth where Nimaasted is high priest
Qesy, river city, home of Hapu’s aunt
Quseir, trade-route city known for its 12 wells and 70 palms
Saww, port city on Great Green (the Red Sea)
Sunet, home of Mut-Nofret and Seni
Ta-Seti, area south of ancient Egypt, also known as Nubia
Waset, capital of the Two Lands, site of present day Luxor
Zau, home of temple of Neith
GODS
Amun, ram-headed gods who became a national deity during New Kingdom
Anubis, jackal-headed protector of the dead
Apep, serpent god of night
Bastet, cat-headed protector of Lower Egypt
Duat, place of purgatory
Field of Reeds, paradise home of the dead
Geb, god of earth
Hapi, blue-skinned river god
Hathor, cow-headed goddess of feminine love and motherhood
Ipy, protective hippopotamus god
Isis, goddess of healing
Khnum, ram-headed potter-creator
Khonsu, “traveler” god of the moon
Nut, sky goddess
Osiris, ruler of underworld
Ptah, staff-carrying creator, considered father of Imhotep
Satet, river goddess of fertility
Sekhmet, lioness, goddess of destruction
Seth, god of evil and desert storms
Shu, wind goddess
Sobek, crocodile-river god
Taweret, hippopotamus goddess of fertility and childbirth
Tefnut, lion-headed goddess of moisture and rain
Thoth, ibis or baboon-headed god of wisdom
Wepwaret, jackal-headed opener of the way to the underworld
THIRD DYNASTY KINGS
King Djoser
Inet-Kawes, his wife (daughter of Hetephernebti)
Teti, his son
Hetephernebti, his sister and Voice of Re
King Sekhemkhet (Teti, son of King Djoser)
King Khaba
Merneith, his lover and priestess of Neith
King Huni
Djefatnebti, his wife
Setka, his son
2630 BCE
Near the end of the Third Dynasty
of the Two Lands
Run Away!
A brief, frantic cry woke Hetephernebti.
Raising her head from the wooden head block on her bed she wondered if the sound was from a nightmare. Then it came again, damped by the stone corridors, yet still urgent.
The sound reminded her of a night, more than fifty years ago, when she had been roused from sleep by her mother’s screams. A feeling of dread swept over Hetephernebti; her mother’s cries so long ago had heralded a time of darkness.
She shut her eyes to close off the past, opened them again, and pushed herself to a seated position.
I’m getting old, she thought as her shoulders and knees moved stiffly and her hip bone seemed to grind against the wooden bed.
A scuffling sound and another cry, muffled and more forlorn.
Leaning forward and pushing with her hands, she stood, her bare feet feeling the chill of the stone floor of her chambers in the Temple of Re. Khonsu’s light slid through the windows, the god's silver fingers draining color from the wall hangings, but Hetephernebti didn’t notice. Her eyes, like her predecessor’s, had grown dim and unfocused with age. She moved now through her rooms with the assurance of years of practice, seeing her surroundings more with her memory than with her eyes.
Through her chamber doorway, across the anteroom, past the opening that led to the room where her daughter Inetkawes had once slept, and out into the hallway. She paused and listened. She looked to her left, smelled incense lingering in the air from earlier in the evening and beneath it the sharper, angrier scent of a recently extinguished torch.
Following the smell, she walked a narrow corridor. Soon she heard rapid breathing and over it the urgent whispering of a man’s voice.
She paused. Was it nothing more than the coupling of lovers?
Then another cry, sharp and pained and quickly smothered.
She hurried now, her blood growing hot from another memory of her anguished childhood: King Nebka, drunk and angry, tearing her gown from her and violently taking her.
She stopped at the doorway of a storage room and saw shadows within slow to a stop.
One of them stood.
“Voice of Re, help me,” a girl cried from the floor.
Hetephernebti recognized Tarset’s strong delta accent.
“Who are you?” she demanded of the standing shadow, a man, his dark form silhouetted by the moon’s cold light seeping through a narrow window.
She moved toward him, one arm out, her palm turned toward him.
Tarset got on her hands and knees. As she started to speak the man kicked at her, his foot striking her head, silencing her.
“No!” Hetephernebti shouted and stepped closer to the man.
As she grabbed at the intruder, he twisted away and then suddenly spun back toward her, his right arm outstretched, the back of his fisted hand smashing against Hetephernebti’s face. She felt a sharp pain as her teeth cut into her bottom lip and then a curious, descending peace.
Her eyes rolled upward and, unconscious, she fell gracelessly. Her head slapped against the stone wall, her small chest bounced against the stones and she crumpled to the ground, knocking over pots of oil and shattering the thick pottery.
The man stood over her, his chest rising and falling from the rush of violence. He didn’t think that she had recognized him, but he couldn’t be sure. To attack a priestess was an unimaginable crime. To attack Hetephernebti, sister to dead King Djoser and high priestess to the god Re, would shatter ma’at beyond repair.
As he squatted closer to Hetephernebti he saw thick castor oil spreading from the broken jars. Amid the oil were swirling, darker rivulets. Leaning closer to the priestess, he cupped her jaw and gently raised her head. Blood pulsed from a gash in the side of her neck.
He heard movement behind him as Tarset got to her feet.
Standing quickly, he blocked her view of Hetephernebti. Then he changed his mind and roughly grabbed her arm. He pulled her close and pushed her toward Hetephernebti’s body.
“Look what you’ve done!” he whispered in her ear. “You’ve killed Hetephernebti.”
“No,” Tarset cried.
“Yes,” he said. “When they find her, I’ll tell them that you brought me here and tried to seduce me. When Hetephernebti discovered us you fought and you knocked her down.”
Tarset shook her head and tried to pull away.
“Are they going to believe me or a servant?” he said.
She shook now, crying over the death of Hetephernebti, crying over the shame that would fall on her family, crying over the understanding that he was right. She was a servant and no one would take her word over his.
“Run away,” he said, squeezing her arm tightly. “Run away and disappear.”
Blood Mingled
“You are Imhotep’s hemet,” Meryt said, her voice a weak whisper.
Akila, her hand on Meryt’s thin w
rist as she measured her pulse, finished counting to herself. Then, her face masking the anxiety she felt at the weakness of Meryt’s heartbeat, Akila smiled at her patient. “I don’t know that word,” she said uncertainly in the language of the Two Lands.
“It means wife,” Imhotep said from behind her in English. “But not exactly. The idea of possession that often colors the word wife doesn’t apply. Relationships here are less legal and more direct. And women have surprising standing. Unlike most other ancient societies ... ”
He was interrupted by a soft laugh from Meryt.
Akila and Imhotep turned their attention back to their patient.
“My husband likes to hear his voice, doesn’t he?” Meryt asked Akila.
Despite the heavy anxiety that filled the bedroom of Imhotep’s home in Ineb-Hedj, Akila startled herself by laughing aloud. She softly squeezed Meryt’s hand.
Imhotep turned his back on the women, a hopeful smile working its way onto his tired face.
He had been awake all night and he was exhausted – by the lack of sleep, by his worries about Meryt’s waning health, by his anxiety that Akila, living almost five thousand years in his future, wouldn’t find or wouldn’t answer his plea for help – and he had worried how the two women he loved would react when they saw each other for the first time.
Akila felt Meryt return her squeeze. Seeing her draw in a small breath she leaned down to hear her soft whisper.
“I am very tired.”
Akila nodded her understanding. Meryt’s side had been slashed open and she had bled heavily. Now, a week after the attack, she lay on her wooden bed, covered with three thin linen blankets despite the afternoon heat of ancient Egypt. Her wound had been crudely but effectively stitched together. Akila had examined it when she changed the dressing and although it was swollen and tender, she had been pleased to see that it was not filled with pus beneath the dark scab.
“But I am not afraid,” Meryt whispered again. She raised her eyes to look at Imhotep. Then, looking back at Akila she said, “You will take care of him.”
Akila nodded, fighting to keep her lips from trembling and her eyes from welling with tears.
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