IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMID, CHAPTER SIX
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
WWW.TOMMYHAWKSFANTASYWORLD.COM
After fetching a new wrap for my loins from my home, I slipped into the line of workers waiting for their breakfasts and carried it to my favorite eating place the same as if I had not spent the entire night out on the desert sand rather than in my bed. My fears about being discovered from the night before were laid to rest as my friends treated me with neither special attention nor with disregard. I essayed a small joke toward the end of the meal, and it gained only the small laugh it deserved, no more and no less. Among my friends, at least, I was not under suspicion.
It was only as I walked toward my work, my heart beginning to lighten, that I was approached. It was Ahtensetan, a young man who had studied with me for the initiation ritual. He and I had never met except at the Grand Builder's house, and I was surprised when he fell in beside me. Surprised and afraid.
"I greet you, Ahtensetan." I said with what I hoped was equanimity. "Have you been assigned to my work area?"
Ahtensetan shook his head in the negative. "I can only walk with you a short ways further. Listen to me carefully, for I shall not repeat myself."
"I understand." I said. "Speak and I shall hear." Part of the belief system of our religion was that evil news must not be repeated, for to do so alerted the gods of their business with us and thus spur them to act upon it the sooner.
"Your absence last night was noted by the Grand Builder. He suspects that you left to help your fellow villager, warn him of the plan to bring him harm. He sent word to the searchers that if they could not find Anamaton, they were to bring the same mischief upon Zephekaten, who also disdained the words and the signs of the Great Architect."
"So the Grand Builder knows." I said, my heart frozen in my chest from fear.
Ahtensetan nodded. "The searchers were to return to him at dawn and inform him of their work. You must be on your guard."
And without a further word of warning or farewell, Ahtensetan turned and walked away from me.
What was I to do? I was already upon my walk to the work, were I to turn and try to walk away, I would be stopped. Unless I was ill or had my steward's permission, I was to work until the midday meal.
I could slip away then. Surely the Grand Builder would not strike at me in the midst of such a crowd, many of them being friends, or at least men who were well-known to me. So I calmed myself and began to plan as I worked on the stone what I should do. I must go to Anamaton, get his help. I would petition for the right to return to my home village, my father could be counted to parrot whatever words I needed him to say in my support when they brought him forward. I could be on one of the boats southward toward my home before this very nightfall.
I heard the crack of stone above me and looked up. A large stone was falling over the edge of the pyramid. A friend called out a warning to me, but I was already moving away. I jumped back, fell onto the next level lower, a painful fall of over five feet onto hard stone, but the stone which crashed where I stood gave a twist and a bounce and tumbled on downwards, missing me narrowly.
None of the workers above me were men I recognized. And I realized how precarious my life now was. Disregarding protocol, I left my station without permission and walked down the pyramid. I was going to talk to Anamaton now!
I knew where Anamaton worked, generally. I argued my way past the steward of my station, and past the stewards of the other stations as I went down the pyramid, around and around the long, sloping ramp. I got nearly halfway down before one of the Master Stonecutters, and one whom the Grand Builder felt was safe, confronted me. "Where are you going, stonecutter?" he asked me, as he had every right to.
"I must speak immediately with Anamaton." I said. "It is most urgent."
"Tell me, then." came the logical answer. If a stonecutter had a problem, any master Stonecutter could help him.
"It is not a matter involving the work, Master." I said to him.
"Then return to your duties and speak with him outside of work."
"I cannot wait so long as that." I said. "Master...please. It is important."
"It cannot be so important that it cannot wait until Ra is overhead." the Master Stonecutter pointed out. "Return to your duties."
I had no other choice. "I will not, not until I have spoken with Anamaton."
And I took a risk. The Grand Builder hadn't felt this Master Stonecutter was a danger to the strength of the Cult of the Great Architect. So I sketched out between us the symbol of the All.
His eyes widened, whether in religious awe or in fear, I cannot say. He said, "Very well, then, you may speak with Anamaton. But return to your duties as soon as you have done!"
I gave him a rapid obeisance and scuttled past him. I was not molested further and was soon at the base of the pyramid.
Anamaton was the one who supervised the ferrying of the stones to the base of the pyramid, he was the one who rejected poor quality stones and examined them for flaws that would make them unsuitable for an eternity of protecting the abode of the Pharaoh.
Anamaton let me draw him to one side and I poured out my danger to him. When I was done, he frowned. "If the worshipers of the Great Architect are so bold as to strike at their enemies in broad daylight, even by dint of a supposed accident, then they are stronger and more dangerous than I thought." he said.
"What can I do?" I said. "Return to my work and let the next stone crush me?"
"No." he agreed. "Let me think on this a pace."
I felt naked as I could be, in the midst of all those wondering eyes. The business of the pyramid was so carefully planned out, one could look at each person and know his station and his business at any moment. For a mere stone-cutter to be in earnest conference with a Master Stonecutter such as we were, that was an oddity enough to remark upon, with casual if not with scandalous words. I was being noticed and that was something I could not afford at this time.
"You must get word to the Head Priest about this cult." Anamaton decided. "He will listen to you, one of its members, when he would not listen to me." What he didn't say was that if the Head Priest felt you were being malicious or trying to deceive him, he had the power to have you summarily put to death. Anamaton wasn't a coward...but nobody spoke to the Head Priest on such a subject if he could avoid it, for one never knew what his decision would be.
But I nodded. "I will do it." I agreed.
"I must get you papers to travel to Thebes and speak with him." Anamaton said. "I will do so, but it will take me the rest of the day perhaps to do this. Until then, you must hide."
"But where?" I said. The desert was not a place to hide during the day, I would at the very least end the day sunburnt and dehydrated if I tried. Not to mention that the darkness would not be there to obscure me. Any who came near would see and know me for who I was.
"Hide in the rushes near the river." suggested Anamaton. "They are thick over there." He pointed. "We chased a crocodile out of there just a day or so ago, so it will be safe for you."
It was better than the town, which was nearly deserted during the time of work. Guards were moving about the town to watch for would-be thieves, they would surely stop me if I tried to go there during work without proper permission.
So I did as he said, joined a group heading for the river with an empty sledge, even took the rope when I saw an opening and helped them drag it. I got curious looks, but nothing else. They may have thought I was homesick and wanted to steal a ride back home with them. It happened from time to time, though the miscreant was usually picked up and returned by force within a few days' time unless his family could pay a penalty for the loss of his labor (few could).
But when I got close to the river, I left them and slipped off as best I could. The rushes slapped and cut at my arms and legs as I moved through them, feeling conspicuous as I could be, and I moved to the center of them, where the crocodile's nesting place would surely be, if I could find it, I would have a ready-made place to lie down without having to crush reeds, close to the water but not right on it, so that water would be near to hand, cooling the resting place and available to drink.
I found the place and jumped as if the slim brown form there was a crocodile. It was nearly as bad, a young man was lying there upon the crocodile's resting place. He started when I came up, looked behind me for others, and when he saw I was alone, he relaxed.
"You're leaving here, too?" he asked me.
"Yes." I said. It was as I said before, some tried to return home. This young man couldn't have been at the pyramid more than a few score days judging from his age, he must have what he felt were very good reasons for ignoring the dictates of the Pharaoh and his ministers and trying to return to his native village.
"I am Imanhoreb." he volunteered. "From the village of Hunis." A village not far from my own, to the south."
"I am Keph-- Kephmatsut." I said, lying feebly in return, "From the village of....of Kenkuk." It was the only village I knew to the north of the pyramids, I didn't want Imanhoreb to stick too close to me, for he would probably want to be travel companions if we were both going south, and I didn't want to say I was going to see the Head Priest, either, not to him.
Imanhoreb made a grimace of dismay. "I had hoped we would travel together." He said. "You are older than I, you must know more about how to convince the ship master to take you on board than I do. Will he simply call for the guards to come get me?"
"They almost never do." I did know more about this, from gossip and stories told about the fires at night. "They will simply smile and let you ride with them. Going south, you will need to help them row, one reason he will be glad to have you. He will figure that the guards can pick you up at your village, Hunis, as easily as they could and meanwhile, he will have an easier trip out of you."
"My mother will hide me from the guards." he said confidently. "Do you have someone to hide you when you get back home?"
"Not I." I said ruefully. "My father is here already." I hesitated, added, "but my uncle still lives in the village, I will seek his help to avoid the guards." I took advantage of the sounds of men nearby to say, "We had best keep silent the rest of the day, or they will indeed find us before we can seek out a ship to ride home upon."
That quieted Imanhoreb but not for long. A man young as him, who has known only the village, is chatty, he hasn't learned the virtue of working or waiting in silence. Twice I had to warn him not to make noise, first when he began to sing a song to himself, and the second time when he started shaking the reeds around us while pretending to be the God of the Wind.
When he began to sing to himself again, I was thoroughly exasperated. I, far more than he, was in danger from men searching here for me, and this young man without even the beginning of a beard on his chin was in danger of getting both of us caught. He would merely be scolded and put back to work, I would be carried off to the Grand Builder, there to be put to death and my body weighted with stones and sunk in the Nile for the crocodiles to nibble upon.
"Can you not find something to do that does not require you to make noise?" I said in a sharp whisper, harsh with scorn. "We must wait through the day here, for no ship master will risk taking on a deserter such as us without the cover of darkness to conceal us from the banks." That was true, the guards checked the crew of every ship throughout the day. But at night, they were either more careless, or felt this was a safety valve to get rid of unwilling workers; they didn't check as carefully and it was possible to flee upon such a ship.
"I am hungry." He said. "Do you have anything to eat with you at all?"
"No." I said, for my own stomach was empty and beginning to complain. "If a fish comes into this little eddy, we can catch it and eat it raw. Other than that, we must expect to not eat the rest of this day."
"But I'm hungry." he whined like a spoiled child now grown up. "Don't you have anything I could eat?"
The weakness of this young man was intolerable! I was risking my life and he was thinking about food. "Find something to suck on, I am told that helps." I said carelessly. "Or do as I am about to do, and try to sleep." I closed my eyes and decided to ignore him entirely, if his whimpers brought the guards upon us, they would, but I was betting he would become silent if I seemed to be asleep.
It worked, he was silent, and I did sleep after a short time, for I was sleepy from my interrupted night and the bed of crushed grasses beneath us was soft enough. Crocodiles can make some rather comfortable beds when they decide to, or perhaps this was to be a nest for its young. At any rate, my body decided it was soft enough, and my threat to go to sleep was delivered.
At first, I didn't know what had wakened me. The touch was so soft, so body-temperature warm, that at first, I didn't sort out the sensations from the sensations of my now-forgotten dream. Then I did understand it, what had brought me out from slumber, and what was still playing upon my body's senses.
Imenhoreb had lifted up my wrap and had my cock in his mouth and he was sucking on it. Slow, soft, warm, his lips playing up and down my shaft, it was like he was half-dreaming himself, his body moving in languid rhythm, and in his wake was a gentle ripple of pleasure that wafted up and down my cock, as tender as a caress, as soft as a feather, as meek as a kitten.
I lay there, as quiet as if I were still asleep and let him move upon me. My cock was being slowly lifted from its state of turgid-but-quiet up through its many stages of awakening, through the gentle tingles of initial interest, up to the state of pleasure not unlike floating in a pool of warm water where your entire body just relaxes and enjoys it, up through the times where the pleasure first becomes insistent, where your body is nudged by the joy like a child craving attention, and up through the point where the nudging is non-stop, and all the delight is dancing over you like a hundred fairies frolicking in the moonlight, up and into that point where your soul touches the hands of the gods and they welcome you to their number for that one brief period of time, when your body is captive to the tyranny of ecstasy, as it runs riot through your limbs and shivers through your breaths, turning him into inadequate, anemic gasps of air, and you have to breathe harder now, just to stay caught up, and you have to get more of this, you need more of it.
Imanhoreb must have known I was awake and knew further that I was now wracked by the demons of delight, for his lips lost their languor and his hand caught my shaft and held it steady while his head bobbed upon me, sucking at me with a liquid-feeling fury that rocked my entire being, and I could only groan my pleasure as my joy built within me and the army of my seed congregated and clamored to rush into battle.
Only my good sense not to make excessive noise kept me quiet, and even then, I whimpered like an injured dog under Imanhoreb's ministrations, all the way up until my climax caught hold of me and threw me down from my throne and took the crown for itself, and I was beaten by its army of ecstasy that flailed at every point of my body at once, and I gurgled and shot my load upwards, like a careless archer aiming at a high-flying bird does, wasting his arrows upon the impossible, and my own spears of joy sailed upwards and assaulted the walls of Imanhoreb's mouth, there to be torn asunder and absorbed, and Imanhoreb sucked me as dry as if my cock was the dipper of the water-bearer, my load was drunk down and the last dregs vacuumed out of me until I could only slap my hands against the ground and utter nonsense syllables that begged for mercy where there was, and never would, any mercy to give.
At long last it was over and I sank back, drained and feeble, to the bed of crushed reeds once again, and Imanhoreb crawled up to lie beside me. "You told me to find something to suck on." he reminded me impishly.
I smiled at him. "I meant a reed or a stone." I clarified. "Though I suppose you are happier now that you have dined upon my harvest of the day."
"It made a marvelous meal." he said. "Though I should not turn down a second offering if it is to be had."
The sun was not yet overhead. "Check the cookpot and see if it has anything left in it." I said. "If there is anything left, it is yours."
Imanhoreb smiled and slid back down my body, and I lay there to await the end of the daily journey of Ra across the heavens. . It was at dusk, when we ventured out of the rushes and dared approach the docks. No guards were about at all, I guessed that they were all getting their evening meal. My stomach envied them that.
There was three ships waiting at the dock. The first two were stone-hauling ships, and both were headed for the quarries of the south. The third was a messenger ship, and it was going to take the day's messages north with it. When the ship master saw me approach him, tentatively (he wouldn't need any help with the oars on a downstream and downwind ride, and this small vessel had noplace for me to hide upon it) and he waved me over. "Are you Kephrin, a friend of one of the Master Stonecutters?" He asked me.
"I am a friend of Anamaton." I said, realizing he was waiting for me to identify my "friend" as a means of being sure I was the one.
He nodded. "I am to take you to Thebes with me." He said. He handed me a small tablet inscribed with glyphs. "Here is your passage." he said to me. "Your belongings have been placed on board, and also a jar full of bread and meat for you to dine upon. Anamaton said you would be hungry when you got to me."
"He's right." I said. "I am."
"Then let us be off, before the Grand Builder figures out where you are." the ship master said. "I will get you to the dock of the Head Priest, and from there, you will be on your own once more."
My heart was full as we set sail in the cool night air, the skies darkening. I looked up at the constellation of Osiris and pleaded with him to give me a safe and fruitful journey. Then I looked back at the pyramids, whose sight I had not thought to ever leave, as they faded slowly from my view. Even in the darkness, it was only distance that finally stole them from my sight.
THE END OF CHAPTER SIX
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