Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

“And — why not? Before, I — was prying around Thebes in disguise, and now I lead my people to liberate my country and reclaim my stolen throne.”

She gave him a long look, — whose meaning he could not fathom, and he tried to approach her once again but she repelled him — with a gesture of her hand and her features hardened, harshness and pride appearing in her eyes. He felt disappointment and rejection overwhelm his hopes and murder the nightingales of anticipation that sung in his breast. He heard her saying vehemently, “Keep away from me!”

He entreated her, saying, “Don't you remember…?”

But, the anger for which her people were famous taking control of her, she cut him short before he could finish, saying, “I remember and I shall always remember that you are a common spy.”

The terrible shock made him grimace and he said angrily, “Princess, are you not aware that you are speaking to a king?”

“What king, fellow?”

Anger getting the better of him, he said vehemently, “The Pharaoh of Egypt.”

Contemptuously she replied, “And my father would be one of your agents, then?”

The king's anger grew and his pride overwhelmed all other feelings. He said, “Your father is not worthy to be one of my agents. He is the usurper of my country's throne and I have defeated him utterly and made him flee from the northern gates of Thebes, leaving his daughter to fall captive to the people whom he mistreated. I shall follow him with my armies until he takes refuge in the deserts that spat him out into our valley. Are you not aware of this? As for me, I am the lawful king of this valley because I am of the line of the pharaohs of glorious Thebes and because I am a victorious general who is reclaiming his country by strength and by skill.”

Coldly and sarcastically she replied, “Are you proud to be a king whose people excel at fighting women?”

'Amazing! Do you not know that you are indebted to those people of mine for your life? You were at their mercy and if they had killed you, they would not have violated the code that your father established when he exposed women and children to the arrows of the foe.”

“And do you place me on an equal footing with those women?”

“Why not?”

“Pardon, King. I cannot bring myself to imagine that I am like one of your women or that any of my people are like any of yours, unless masters are like slaves. Do you not know that our army felt nothing of the humiliation of defeat when they quit Thebes, but said, in derision, ‘Our slaves have revolted and we shall come back and deal with them'?”

The king lost his temper completely and shouted at her, “Who are the slaves and who the masters? You understand nothing, conceited girl! You were born in the bosom of this valley that inspires men to glory and honor, but had you been born a century earlier you would have been born in the most savage deserts of the cold north and never heard anyone call you ‘princess’ or your father ‘king.’ From those deserts came your people, usurping the sovereignty of our valley and turning its great men into serfs. Then, in their ignorance and conceit, they said that they were princes and we were peasants and slaves, that they were white and we were brown. Today, justice has returned, and will restore the master to his proper place while the slave will be turned back into a slave. Whiteness will become the badge of those who roam the cold deserts and brownness the emblem of the masters of Egypt, who have been cleansed by the light of the sun. This is the indisputable truth.”

Rage now blazed in the princess's heart and the blood rushed to her face. Contemptuously she said, “I know that my forefathers descended onto Egypt from the northern deserts, but how has it escaped you that they were lords of those deserts before they became, by their strength, masters of this valley? They were already masters, people of pride and dignity, who knew no path to their goal but the sword and did not disguise themselves in the clothes of traders so that today they might attack those to whom only yesterday they had prostrated themselves.”

He stared at her with a harsh, scrutinizing look and saw that she was possessed of a pride, imagination, and cruelty that never softened or gave way to fear and that the overbearing, haughty characteristics of her people were all present in her. Overwhelmed by fury, he felt a burning desire to subdue and humble her, especially after she had belittled his emotions with her pride and boasting. In a haughty, quiet voice he said to her, “I can see no reason to continue this debate with you and I should not forget that I am a king and you a captive.”

“Captive if you wish, but I shall never be humbled.” “On the contrary, you are protected by my mercy, so this courage becomes you well.”

“My courage never abandons me. Ask your men who snatched me by treachery and they will tell you of my courage and my contempt for them at the most critical and dangerous of all times for me.”