Read Out of the Black Land for Free Online Page A

interested in religion.
‘No! Your mind is corrupted, like all the others.’ He sat up abruptly. ‘Go, leave my presence.’
‘Lord, do not distress yourself,’ said Nefertiti. ‘I spoke only from ignorance, and did not the Divine Amenhotep your father say that Ignorance is the one disease which has an easy cure ?’
He did. I had read that maxim of Amenhotep to my sister only the week before. The agitation of anger had tired the young King, and he sagged down into my sister’s arms again.
‘Ah, my lady, ‘ he said softly. ‘Thy breast is a pillow for my aching head.’
‘That is as it should be, lord,’ she said softly. ‘Let me sing to you, and then you will sleep.’
He must have nodded, for she began to sing very softly a lullaby sung by all mothers on the banks of the great River, from mud huts to palaces.
‘Sleep little child,
Thy mother is here.
Sleep is on the water
Sleep is in the reeds.
Birds rest with wings folded
Winds sleep in the sky.
The Gods guard the night
The Gods guard the Nile.
Khons counts the hours
The moon wanes. Sleep,
Mother’s breast bears you,
Little child, sleep.’
The Pharaoh sighed and snuggled closer, and soon I too slept.
In the morning my sister went to my mother and reported, ‘It is as you feared.’
Tey shot me a hard glance and I nodded, not venturing to speak. ‘You are sure that no stimulation can rouse him?’ asked Tey, and Nefertiti blushed. ‘Is it perhaps that he prefers men?’
‘No, I do not believe that he is potent at all,’ said my sister.
‘Then we shall appeal to the Lord Amenhotep, the Divine One,’ said Tey, who always made fast decisions.
‘Mother, wait,’ Nefertiti put her hand on my mother’s arm. ‘I would not shame him. He is possessed of a God, I am sure. A new God, one God, he says, Ruler of All. He says that this God requires his seed, that He took it all away from him when he was just grown, and he sickened but did not die. He is gentle, Mother Tey, and I love him. I will not leave him.’
Tey considered. She always put her head on one side when she was thinking, like a predatory bird. I could see what she was thinking. We had position—my mother was now Divine Nurse to the Queen of Upper and Lower Egypt. My father would not abandon this, even though he had married his daughter to a eunuch. And when Nefertiti said that she loved him and would not leave him, she meant it. Was not the household of Tey overloaded with people whom Nefertiti loved, who could not be dismissed and who did no work because they were old, crippled or crazed? Nefertiti has as soft a heart as Hathor herself. It was because of the Divine Nefertiti’s devotion to the lost and strayed that we had a one-armed doorkeeper, a cook who crooned all day to a strange little conic fetish, and a watchdog with three legs. Tey had frequently remarked that the concubine’s daughter could cherish a crocodile in her bosom, or wet-nurse a snake.
And she had clearly taken her husband under her protection, and there was no remedy for it.
‘We will speak privately with the Lord Amenhotep,’ decided Tey. ‘There need be no shame. But it is his posterity you guard, daughter, and he must know of a remedy. He is, after all, renowned for his wisdom.’
Nefertiti assented and went to her own quarters to be bathed and massaged with oil.
Mother Tey gave me a piece of honeyed bread and a draft of beer, sat me down on a cross-legged stool, and cross-examined me about all the events of the night. I answered as fully as I could, every sound and every word. I also described the appearance of the King, suppressing my comparison with the boys swimming in the river, as I did not think that I was supposed to look at them.
‘It is as she said,’ she muttered. ‘Good girl, Mutnodjme. Stay with your sister. I do not think he will harm her. She is gentle and loving. But you, my sharp-witted creature, do not you argue religion with him. Agree, daughter, and if you cannot agree, be silent!’
‘But