IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMID, CHAPTER SEVEN
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
WWW.TOMMYHAWKSFANTASYWORLD.COM
There was nothing for me to do upon this small, shallow-bottomed boat. I had slept a good deal during the day and expected to spend a restless night upon the waters. I should have realized that our journey would not take place during the nighttime hours, the messenger ship simply went downstream to the nearest village and docked there for the night. If I had considered it further, I would have remembered that none but the builders and artisans were permitted to spend the night about the pyramids. So I was not yet free from danger. I felt some consolation that the village was upon the eastern side of the river, but that was scant protection should the Grand Builder and his minions (for such I counted them now instead of my co-religionists) come looking for me.
As a messenger to the Head Priest, I was given quarters in the village, but my sleep was not the least restful. Thus, I awoke when I heard the strident voices nearby.
"We seek the one named Kephrin. He has fled from his duties at the pyramid, and we think he may have stowed away upon your ship. Did you have any from the pyramids who sought a berth upon your ship?"
"None stowed away upon my ship." the ship-master said. "And if you will but observe it, out there at the quay, you will see that none traveled upon my ship unobserved."
"You are certain that the one named Kephrin is not among your crew?"
"My crew has been with me for many years." the ship-master said with confidence. "No stranger can hide among them without my knowledge. If you seek a fugitive, you should search elsewhere. Perhaps among his home village?"
"Do not think we are foolish." came the answer. "Of course we are searching there. But we think he may be trying to reach the Head Priest in order to harm him, and if he is going to Thebes, he would have boarded your ship. He may still try to board your ship. If you see him, arrest him on sight and bring him back to the pyramids for his punishment."
"If I see such a dangerous man as you say, I shall certainly do as you say." the ship-master said. "I give my word that I speak nothing but the truth to you."
There was more, the sounds of parting and caution to beware of the dangerous man which I was supposed to be, and then silence once again.
Who could sleep again when that was done? I tossed so much that the others around me protested and I went outside and sat in the darkness. Looking up at the stars, wondering if I should live to see them again the next night, or if I was so fortunate, should I ever see my father or Keotin again? When I would gaze once again upon the pyramids, the work of my entire adult life so far?
When dawn finally came, I took my morning meal with the others, and then we again boarded the ship. I waited until we were well on our way, and then I approached the ship-master. "I heard your words of last night." I said to him by way of preamble.
"Did you?" was his only response.
"I am grateful that you did not reveal my presence to them." I said.
He waved my gratitude aside. "You are on a valid mission." he said to me. "This is my duty, to carry messages and messengers to their destination. I am not a constable to arrest people on sight. Even if the Pharoah's guards are the ones wanting you."
"The Pharoah's guards?" I asked, aghast. Then, in disbelief. "They must have stolen the clothing and ornaments of the guards." I said.
But the ship-master shook his head. "Not these. I knew them both from past experience. You have some very powerful enemies out there. If I were you, I would be careful."
"I shall be, and I thank you again." I said.
"We are coming up on the city of Osiri-Aken." the ship-master said to me. "My stop here is brief. But you should stay aboard ship and out of sight."
"How can I hide upon a ship so small?" I said.
"Lie down full-length in the bow." he recommended to me. "I shall dock with my stern to the dock and the packages we carry amidships will cover you."
I did as he suggested. The waters moved the ship gently, I felt safe under the ship-master's protection, and after my sleepless night, I fell soundly asleep.
When I awakened again, it was nearly noon and we were once again underway. When I did, I discovered two things.
First, I was being watched with a great deal of interest by a young man who was a stranger aboard ship. His posture, seated atop the boxes nearest to me, practically generated good-will and a bit of joviality, I didn't feel his strangeness to mean danger. It may seem strange, given my fear of the prior night, but I have often found that the gods whisper to me in words too faint to hear, my inability to sleep the night before was their way of warning me about the guards who had come to search for me, and my comfort with this young stranger was their way of telling me to relax, that I was still among only friends.
Second, and this took me a bit longer to notice, was that I was sporting a sizeable erection due to a comfortable sexual dream I half-remembered. Another indication of my lack of fear at this time. My cock had lifted my loin-wrap aside, and was jutting out from my body like a proud brown obelisk.
"You are awake now?" the young man asked me. He had a lean but friendly face, his nose was a gentle slope upon his face, it led the workers up to the eyes, deep black shining stones that flickered the sunlight back to my eyes, embellished by their beauty, the cheeks were as smooth as the best-dressed stone I had ever cut, and his skin was a smooth, even brown unmarked by any blemish of illness or even of those marks the gods often place upon their creations to mark their craft. The god that created this man didn't want the art to be marred even by his own hands, and so he left it so, anonymously flawless.
"Yes, I am." I said to this vision before me.
"I am told you travel to Thebes to see the Head Priest." he said to me. "So do I. I carry a message to his cook, telling them of the harvests on the estates of the Head Priest, so that he may plan his meals in accordance."
"Did he require to be informed of this in person?" I asked. It didn't seem to require a personal appearance, a detailed message would have sufficed."
"No." the man admitted. "But it gave me a chance to see Thebes like I wanted." And he gave an easy grin, youth getting what it wanted.
I grinned back at him. I truly felt comfortable around this young man. I was much like him shortly before beginning to work on the pyramids, when the entire world was open to me and my life course was yet to be chosen. I did not know then I would become a stone-cutter, I could be anything at all. "Do you always get what you want?" I asked him.
"Not always." he said. "But I figure you have to try to get it if you really want it. You never know when they'll say yes, so you have to ask."
"That's sensible." I agreed.
"And sometimes it's better not to even ask." he said to me, slipping off his perch to stand at my feet. "Sometimes you just have to assume you can, and go ahead."
And he went down to his knees, and then crouched over me, and his lips enclosed my still-hard cock. His moist mouth surrounded me and I could only groan as his tongue stroked my shaft and his head pulled back up, taking my foreskin with it, his suction tugging at my cock.
He dove back down and my delight intensified, a shudder of joy flooded my body as he slid deeply down, taking my entire length into him on this second attempt, and I felt my cock slipping down his throat, and the tight moistness of that depth made me groan yet again.
And when he rose up again, he left my cock entirely. "Am I correct that you will permit me to continue?" he asked me.
"Yes, oh, yes!" I groaned and my hand came up and landed on his head and pushed him back toward my cock. He chuckled before he once again took me into his mouth. This time, he moved with the lithe, smooth motions of a well-experienced lover, and I knew that I was far from the first lover he'd had despite his youth. His mouth was as agile as a dancer, and it slid up and down over my prick with the smooth glide that awakened delight the way that the sun awakens the sun-loving flowers.
There was the heat of the sun warming my body, and the river cooled its ferocity to a level that only made me feel languid rather than exhausted. There was the gentle motions of the boat as it was borne downriver, aided by the current and by the wind which was favorable to our northward journey. There were the expert motions from my young lover that wrung every ounce of pleasure from my body and left my spirit feel like it was floating above us, being wafted along by the winds as if I were a bird like those above us now, motionless as they let the wind do all the work for them, and they simply hovered and enjoyed the day, and so I enjoyed my day, its magnificence brought to life by this pair of supple lips, this delight of young ardor so simple and uncomplicated in its needs and its expressions. He had wanted me, and so he had taken me. My body had recognized this as I have described before, and I knew that this was why my cock had risen before I had awakened, it knew that this would be a morning of ecstasy and idle delight.
And so I made no effect to reciprocate to this young man, though I usually would have turned about beneath him to take his manhood into my own mouth, this time, this place, I merely lay back and let him work his magic upon me.
And my climax was similarly effortless in its rising majesty, it warmed within me and grew at its own pace, as if it said, we have an eternity here to reach the end of this journey, let us then tarry and take in the entire experience.
I do not know for certain how long I lay there and let this young stranger suck my cock, but it wasn't a very long time, the sun was still short of its highest point, the god had not yet turned its eyes towards its rest, it was still in its youthful glory and it was still seeking out the meaning of this day, for it could not turn toward the haven beyond the hills until it had reached that point.
And that point was perhaps my own pleasure, for I felt the sun stroke me with its own fingers of heat-filled lust, and that warm third partner was enough to make me moan as I felt my cock surge into its appointed place, which was the point of highest passion, and I moaned softly as I reached my peak and I plunged into the abyss just beyond as I erupted into my young lover's clutching, sucking, enfolding, manipulating mouth, and I shot upwards into him and he gulped at me greedily, sucking out all of my life force with that load, as if he was draining my energy into himself, and I wondered just how young he was, for it was known that some could by conjurations borrow life from another, and if that was so, perhaps this was how such a one could do it, to drain my essence out and squirrel it away inside himself, and then as I realized this, I stopped caring and I fed him all of myself, if this was oblivion, let it be so and let me die like this!
And when I finished ejaculating, I was limp and weak as any victim of such magic, panting and feeling feeble.
I realized that he was licking my cock clean of his saliva and any excess dregs of my come that still clung there, his tongue flicked at me like a lizard's, or like a dog's, or like a human's that had enjoyed his service to his lover and is now taking his reward in the luscious taste of it, and when he was done, I was as clean as I had been before he first kissed my maleness.
"I am finished and return to you your possession, only a little more worn than it was before." he said to me, and that easy smile touched his face once again.
"You have ridden me much, and I must rest yet more before I can arise and take my place among the others on this boat." I said to him.
"Rest, then." he said to me. "I shall ease you back to sleep with a story." And he launched into a tale of the gods I hadn't heard before.
And then, about a third way through the tale, he said, "And so Menkehank prayed to the Life-Giver, the once who brought the life out of the Source, and so the Source created us all by the Life-Giver's hand...."
"One moment." I said, reeling. This tale was familiar after all! "You speak of the Source. Is the Source also called the All?"
"I have only heard it called the Source." my young lover responded. "It is a new god to be worshiped, and we who are blessed to be in the Life-Giver's service most directly are most favored of him, for we work as he did with the Source to bring life out of the Source as he did...."
"Wait, wait!" I said, my head reeling. "Let me see if I have heard of this god after all." And without mentioning the Great Architect or the All in detail, I went into some details of the worship."
"You have heard of the Source." he confirmed. "You know the Source by another name?"
"It appears that I do." I said. "I must think on this. I do wish to travel with you to Thebes, but may I ask that you give me a brief time alone now?"
He acquiesced, puzzled, but I was too dazzled by this discovery to worry on that.
I had thought that the Great Architect and the All was a religion practiced around the building of the pyramids. This would make my new god a local god, one which would post no real threat to the Pharaoh and the gods he lived among upon his death.
But if this religion was spreading among more than the builders, and if it took on new names and new words, to make each class of worker in the Pharaoh's service feel especially blessed...
Then there was certain to be a plot against the Pharaoh by the Grand Builder, or whoever his leader was. Someone was out to seize the very throne of our god-king!
I had to speak with the Head Priest, and fast! The very fate of our people rested upon his listening and believing me. If not, then our country would be wracked by a civil war, that may well wrest the crown from the Pharaoh's head!
THE END OF CHAPTER SEVEN
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