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down before the frog.”
    Ramose waited, expecting more. But the hard mask of the old woman’s face melted away and she changed back into a smiling grandmother again.
    “Is that it?” Ramose cried.
    Jenu nodded. “The oracle’s words are truth.” She looked limp and drained.
    “But, they’re just riddles. What do they mean?”
    “That’s for you to discover. The oracle has been generous. She doesn’t often say so much.”
    Ramose felt cheated, as if the old woman had tricked him. He took his reed mat and unrolled it away from the others. He curled up in the smelly goat-hair coat that the nomads had given him. He didn’t want to speak to anybody.

5
ABYDOS
    The next day, Ramose woke with a sense of urgency. He had dreamt he’d seen his father walking in the palace gardens. In the dream Ramose had called out to him, but Pharaoh couldn’t hear him. Ramose had tried to get closer to him, but whichever way he turned there was a wall or a pond or a row of tall plants in his way. Ramose knew he had to leave the oasis. He had delayed for too long. “I’m walking to Thebes,” he told his friends. “I have to leave immediately.”
    “You don’t know how far it is to the river,” said Karoya. “You may not be able to carry enough food and water to get you there.’
    “It’s too risky,” complained Hapu.
    “I have to go,” said Ramose. “You two stay here and wait for the next nomads to come along.”
    Ramose didn’t like to admit it, but the oracle’s words had affected him strongly. He still didn’t know what they meant, but whatever his destiny was, he had to face it. He had wandered from his path. He had wasted valuable time. He had to get to Thebes as soon as possible. He had to see his father.
    He asked Jenu if he could have some leather for a waterskin. She nodded and cut him a length of goat hide from her stock. She showed him how to make the bag with the hairy side facing in. She also gave him a supply of dried goat meat and cheese. Ramose mended his sandals and his nomad coat. By the time he had finished his preparations, it was too late in the day to start his journey.
    “We’re not staying behind,” said Karoya as the sun started to get low in the sky. “We’re coming with you.”
    “You don’t have to,” said Ramose. “Stay here.”
    “And then what would we do?” asked Hapu.
    Ramose looked at his friends. Since the day they had chosen to follow him instead of going to the place that had been allotted to them, their destinies were tied up with his.
    Hapu looked at the pool of water unhappily. “I think it would be better if we all waited here until other nomads come. But if you want to leave now, I’ll come too.”
    “I’ll be grateful for your company.”

    They left before sunrise the next morning. Jenu bade them all goodbye.
    “The gods will be with you,” said the old woman. “They won’t abandon you.”
    Karoya said goodbye to Mery with tears in her eyes. Jenu clutched Mery to her in case she tried to follow them.
    “The cat will keep me warm at night,” Jenu said happily.
    Earlier, Ramose had offered to come back and give her as much gold as she wanted once he had achieved his goal, if she gave the cat back. The old woman had refused.
    The three friends loaded themselves up with food and water and walked out into the desert. The sun rose in front of them. They walked towards it in single file, keeping space between them. No one felt like talking.
    In the heat of midday, they stopped and made a shelter from the hot sun with a length of goat-hair cloth and some sticks that Jenu had given them. They ate a light meal, drank a little water and slept until the worst of the heat had passed.
    When they woke, they walked until two or three hours after the sun had set, then ate cold meat and cheese. They slept again and then walked in the darkness before dawn. They spoke little, not wanting to waste precious energy on idle talk.
    Ramose wasn’t sure that they would make it to