Praise for Pauline Gedge
“Gedge excels at setting the scene and subtly evoking a sense of the period as she tells a timeless story of greed, love, and revenge.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Gedge makes the past so accessible. You can imagine walking between the pillars into a magnificent hall and watching it come alive with the smell of the fresh paint on the frescoes.”
—The Globe and Mail
“Gedge vividly renders the exotic, sensuous world of ancient Memphis, the domestic rituals of bathing and dressing, the social ambience of superstition and spells.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Gedge has such a terrific feel for ancient Egypt that the reader merrily suspends disbelief and hangs on for the ride.”
—Calgary Herald
“Her richly colourful descriptions … hit the reader with photographic clarity.”
—The Ottawa Sun
“Gedge has brought Egypt alive, not just the dry and sandy Egypt we know from archaeology, but the day-today workings of what was one of the greatest and most beautiful kingdoms in the history of the world.”
—Quill & Quire
“Each volume is a carefully devised segment, with its own distinct flavour and texture. When put together, then the skill and workmanship of the whole undertaking stand out clearly. The trilogy is one of Pauline Gedge’s most appealing works.”
—Edmonton Journal
“Gedge … has the magical ability to earn a reader’s suspension of disbelief.”
—Toronto Star
“Pauline Gedge’s strengths—imagination, ingenuity in plotting, and convincing characterization—are here in abundance.”
—Books in Canada
“Gedge draws another vivid picture of Ancient Egypt and skillfully weaves her dramatic tale of intrigue, treachery, and manipulation. Her historical novels have the ability to bring a period fully before us; it is possible to feel the heat and experience the pageantry she so ably describes.”
—The Shuswap Sun
“Pauline Gedge’s knowledge of Egyptian history is both extensive and intimate, and has enabled her to produce an entire society of the time of Ramses II with admirable vitality. She has a sharp eye for the salient detail, and an evocative way with landscape and interiors. She can produce a mood and suggest an atmosphere … A very good story well told, and it engrosses the reader from the first page to the last.”
—The Globe and Mail
PENGUIN CANADA
THE HORUS ROAD
PAULINE GEDGE is the award-winning and bestselling author of eleven previous novels, eight of which are inspired by Egyptian history. Her first, Child of the Morning, won the Alberta Search-for-a-New Novelist Competition. In France, her second novel, The Eagle and the Raven, received the Jean Boujassy award from the Société des Gens des Lettres, and The Twelfth Transforming, the second of her Egyptian novels, won the Writers Guild of Alberta Best Novel of the Year Award. Her books have sold more than 250,000 copies in Canada alone; worldwide, they have sold more than six million copies and have been translated into eighteen languages. Pauline Gedge lives in Alberta.
ALSO BY PAULINE GEDGE
Child of the Morning
The Eagle and the Raven
Stargate
The Twelfth Transforming
Scroll of Saqqara
The Covenant
House of Dreams
House of Illusions
The Hippopotamus Marsh:
Lords of the Two Lands, Volume One
The Oasis: Lords of the Two Lands, Volume Two
The Twice Born
THE
HORUS
ROAD
Lords of the Two Lands
VOLUME THREE
PAULINE
GEDGE
PENGUIN CANADA
Published by the Penguin Group
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(a division of Pearson Canada Inc.)
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First published in a Viking Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada), a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2000
Published in Penguin Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada), a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2001
Published in this edition, 2007
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (OPM)
Copyright © Pauline Gedge, 2000
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Gedge, Pauline, 1945– The Horus road / Pauline Gedge.
(Lords of the two lands ; v. 3)
Originally publ.: Toronto : Viking, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-14-316747-1
1. Ahmose I, King of Egypt—Fiction. 2. Egypt—History—To 332 B.C.—Fiction.
I. Title. II. Series: Gedge, Pauline, 1945– Lords of the two lands ; v. 3.
PS8563.E33H67 2007 C813’.54 C2007-903368-7
ISBN-10: 0-14-316747-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-316747-1
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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This trilogy is dedicated to Prince Kamose, one of the most obscure and misunderstood characters in Egyptian history. I hope that in some small I have contributed to his rehabilitation.
CHARACTER LIST
THE FAMILY
Ahmose Tao—Prince of Weset
Aahotep—his mother
Tetisheri—his grandmother
Aahmes-nefertari—his sister and wife
Tani—his younger sister
Ahmose-onkh—Aahmes-nefertari’s son by her eldest brother and first husband, Si-Amun, now deceased
Hent-ta-Hent—daughter to Ahmose and Aahmes-nefertari
Sat-Kamose—daughter to Ahmose and Aahmes-nefertari
MALE SERVAN
TS
Akhtoy—the Chief Steward
Kares—Steward to Aahotep
Uni—Steward to Tetisheri
Ipi—the Chief Scribe
Khabekhnet—the Chief Herald
Neferperet—the Chief Treasurer
Khunes—Aahmes-nefertari’s Scribe
Amuniseneb—Aahmes-nefertari’s Overseer of Granaries
Emkhu—Aahmes-nefertari’s Captain of the Household Guards
Yuf—Aahotep’s personal priest
Pa-she—Tutor to Ahmose-onkh
Hekayib—Ahmose’s body servant
FEMALE SERVANTS
Isis—Tetisheri’s body servant
Hetepet—Aahotep’s body servant
Heket—Tani’s body servant
Raa—Ahmose-onkh’s Nurse
Senehat—a servant
THE PRINCES
Hor-Aha—a native of Wawat and leader of the Medjay
Makhu of Akhmin
Mesehti of Djawati
Ankhmahor of Aabtu
Harkhuf—his son
Sebek-nakht of Mennofer
Antefoker of Iunu
OTHER EGYPTIANS
Tetaky—Mayor of Weset
Dagi—Mayor of Mennofer
Pahesi—Mayor of Nekheb
Amunmose—High Priest of Amun
Turi—Ahmose’s childhood friend and General of the Division of Amun
Ramose—son of Aahotep’s relatives, a close friend to Ahmose, and once Tani’s betrothed
Baba Abana—a naval officer
Kay (later Ahmose) Abana—his son, also a naval officer
Zaa pen Nekheb—Kay Abana’s young cousin
Qar—Captain of the ship North
EGYPTIAN MILITARY PERSONNEL
DIVISION OF AMUN
Prince Ahmose—Commander-in-Chief
Turi—General
Ankhmahor—Commander of the Shock Troops
division of ra
Kagemni—General
Khnumhotep—Commander of the Shock Troops
Khaemhet—Standard Bearer
DIVISION OF PTAH
Akhethotep—General
DIVISION OF THOTH
Baqet—General
Tchanny—Commander of the Shock Troops
Pepynakht—Standard Bearer
DIVISION OF KHONSU
Iymery—General
DIVISION OF ANUBIS
Neferseshemptah—General
DIVISION OF OSIRIS
Meryrenefer—General
DIVISION OF HORUS
Khety—General
Ankhtify—Standard Bearer
DIVISION OF MONTU
Sebek-khu—General
THE SETIU
Awoserra Aqenenra Apepa—the King
Pezedkhu—General
Hat-Anath—a female courtier
INTRODUCTION
AT THE END of the Twelfth Dynasty the Egyptians found themselves in the hands of a foreign power they knew as the Setiu, the Rulers of Uplands. We know them as the Hyksos. They had initially wandered into Egypt from the less fertile eastern country of Rethennu in order to pasture their flocks and herds in the lush Delta region. Once settled, their traders followed them, eager to profit from Egypt’s wealth. Skilled in matters of administration, they gradually removed all authority from a weak Egyptian government until control was entirely in their hands. It was a mostly bloodless invasion achieved through the subtle means of political and economic coercion. Their kings cared little for the country as a whole, plundering it for their own ends and aping the customs of their Egyptian predecessors in a largely successful effort to lull the people into submission. By the middle of the Seventeenth Dynasty they had been securely entrenched in Egypt for just over two hundred years, ruling from their northern capital, the House of the Leg, Het-Uart.
But one man in southern Egypt, claiming descent from the last true King, finally rebelled. In the first volume of this trilogy, The Hippopotamus Marsh, Seqenenra Tao, goaded and humiliated by the Setiu ruler Apepa, chose revolt rather than obedience. With the knowledge and collusion of his wife, Aahotep, his mother, Tetisheri, and his daughters, Aahmes-nefertari and Tani, he and his sons, Si-Amun, Kamose and Ahmose, planned and executed an uprising. It was an act of desperation doomed to failure. Seqenenra was attacked and partially paralyzed by Mersu, Tetisheri’s trusted steward who was also a spy in his household. Regardless of his injuries he marched north with his small army, only to be killed during a battle against the superior forces of the Setiu King Apepa and his brilliant young General Pezedkhu.
His eldest son, Si-Amun, should have assumed the title of Prince of Weset. But Si-Amun, his loyalty divided between his father’s claim to the throne of Egypt and the Setiu King, had been duped into passing information regarding his father’s insurrection to Teti of Khemmenu, his mother’s relative and a favourite of Apepa, through the spy Mersu. In a fit of remorse he killed Mersu and then himself.
Believing that the hostilities were over, Apepa travelled south to Weset and passed a crushing sentence on the remaining members of the family. He took Seqenenra’s younger daughter, Tani, back to Het-Uart with him as a hostage against any further trouble, but Kamose, now Prince of Weset, knew that his choice lay between a continued struggle for Egypt’s freedom or the complete impoverishment and separation of the members of his family. He chose freedom.
The second volume of this trilogy, The Oasis, tells how Kamose renewed his father’s fight with the assistance of other Princes of Egypt. Necessity made him a vengeful and merciless warrior who was unable to tell friend from foe. He tore the country apart in his desire to restore Egypt to its former glory, but he was ultimately betrayed and murdered by several of his princely allies who became disillusioned with his methods and made a bargain with Apepa for their own profit. Seqenenra’s youngest son, Ahmose, was wounded at the same time that Kamose was killed. While he was recovering, the women of the family came into their own, putting down the mutiny and re-establishing control over the army. It was then left to Ahmose to develop a strategy that might bring the domination of the Setiu to an end.
THE
HORUS
ROAD
1
DURING THE REMAINING DAYS of mourning for Kamose, Aahmes-nefertari saw little of her husband. She had expected the solemnity of grief to finally descend on the household now that the rebellion had been put down, and it was true that peace of a kind embraced the family, but it was more a silent sigh of relief than a quiet tribute to her brother. The weight of bitterness, the constant urge for revenge that had driven Kamose to so much killing and destruction, had pervaded them all for so long that they had become accustomed to living in a state of underlying tension. Now the source of that strain was gone, and they felt its withdrawal as a strange cleansing.
Nevertheless they had loved him, and as Mekhir flowed into Phamenoth and every small field around Weset came alive with the songs of the sowers as they flung their seed onto the glistening dark soil, they each grieved for him in their own way. Tetisheri kept to her rooms, the incense that accompanied her private prayers blurring the passage outside her door in a thin haze. Aahotep moved about the house with her usual calm regality, but she could often be seen sitting motionless under the trees of the garden, her chin sunk into her palm and her gaze fixed unseeingly before her.
Aahmes-nefertari found that her own sorrow made her restless. With a servant holding a sunshade over her head and a patient Follower plodding behind her, she took to walking. Sometimes she paced the river road between the estate and the temple. Sometimes she ventured into Weset itself. But more often she found herself skirting the fields where the germs of new life were being trodden into the wet earth by sturdy, naked feet. It was as though purposeless movement might enable her to escape from the misery that dogged her, but everywhere she carried with her the curve of his smile and the sound of his voice.
Ahmose would rise early, eat quickly, and disappear just after da
wn. In answer to his wife’s remonstrations he smiled absently, kissed her gently, assured her that he was feeling stronger every day, and left her. At one time he would have been fishing, she knew, but he had kept to his vow and had even given away his favourite rod and his net. Occasionally she happened to be passing the mangled gates leading to the old palace and glancing inside she caught a glimpse of him, once standing with hands on hips staring up at the frowning edifice and once emerging from the gloom of the huge reception hall. Several times she saw him coming along the edge of the canal that joined the temple forecourt to the Nile, surrounded by his retainers. Then he would wave and smile. She did not wonder what was in his mind. There was no room in her for anything but memories.
The strange serenity of those weeks was broken by the return of Ramose, Mesehti and Makhu. They came sailing up the river one warm afternoon, a small flotilla of servants’ crafts behind them, and Aahmes-nefertari knew that the time of introspection was over. A herald had arrived the day before to warn Ahmose of the Princes’ arrival and he was waiting for them above the watersteps with Hor-Aha and Ankhmahor. Aahmes-nefertari was there also, acutely conscious of her husband’s stiff stance and the expressionless set of his features as he watched the boat nudge the steps and the ramp slide out.
Ramose was the first to disembark. Climbing the steps, he strode to Ahmose and extending his arms in a gesture of submission and reverence he bowed. Ahmose beckoned him forward and then pulled him close. “My friend,” he said quietly. “Welcome home. I do not know yet how I may repay the debt to you that has accumulated since my father’s day. Nor can I describe the pain your mother’s execution caused me when I recovered enough to hear about it. I am well aware of how much agony a man can suffer when he must choose where to place his loyalty and you have been forced to make that choice too often. I pray that never again will such a bitter cup be offered.” Ramose smiled sadly.