BOOK 7
Minea
1
WE SUCCEEDED in getting clear of the city unchallenged by the watch, for there was free access to the river at night, and I crept beneath the deck to lay my weary head to rest. But still there was no peace, for Minea had unrolled herself from the mat and was washing herself clean of blood, scooping up the river water in her hands while the moonlight sparkled in the drops that fell between her fingers.
She looked at me unsmilingly and said in reproach, "By your advice I have made myself filthy, and I smell of blood and shall surely never again be clean, and it's all your fault. What's more, when you carried me, you squeezed me much harder than was necessary so that I could not breathe."
Her talk annoyed me, and I was very tired, so I snapped at her, "Hold your tongue, accursed woman! When I think of all you have made me do, I feel like throwing you into the river, where you could wash to your heart's content. Had it not been for you, I should now be sitting on the right hand of the King of Babylon, and the priests of the tower would impart to me all their wisdom, concealing nothing, and I should be the wisest physician in the world. For your sake I have forfeited the presents I might have earned by the practice of my calling. My gold is dwindling, and I dare not present the tablets that entitle me to draw money in the temple counting houses. All this is on your account, and I curse the day I saw you; every year on this day I shall wear sackcloth and ashes."
She trailed her hand in the moonlit river, the water cleaving before it like molten silver, as she said in a low voice and with her face averted, "If this is so, let me jump into the river as you desire. Then you will be rid of me."
She rose and would have leaped in, but I seized and held her, saying, "Have done with this folly! If you jump in, all my contriving will have been in vain. In the name of all the gods let me sleep in peace, Minea, and do not bother me with these whims, for I am very tired."
With this I crawled under the mat and drew it closely about me, for the night was chilly although spring had come and storks were crying among the reeds. She crept in beside me, murmuring, "If I can do nothing else, I can at least keep you warm."
I was too weary for further argument but fell asleep and slept soundly in her warmth, for she was young and her body like a little stove beside me.
When I awoke, we had come far upstream, and the boatmen were grumbling. "Our shoulders are like wood, and our backs ache. Do you seek our death? Is your house afire that we must race to quench it?"
I hardened my heart and said, "Whoever slackens will feel my stick; you will take your first rest at noon. Then you may eat and drink, and to each of you I shall give a mouthful of date wine to revive you, and you will feel as airy as birds. But if there is any murmuring, I shall invoke all the devils against you; for you must know that I am a priest and a magician."
I said this to frighten them, but the sun was shining brightly and they did not believe me. They said only, "He is alone and we are ten!" and the nearest of them tried to smite me with his oar.
At that moment a thunderous noise came from the bow: it was Kaptah beating on the inside of the jar, cursing and yelling. The rowers turned gray in the face and one after another leaped overboard into the river and swam away out of sight. The boat swung across the stream, but I dropped the anchor stone. Minea came up from the cabin combing her hair, and at that instant all my fear left me, for she was fair, and the sun was shining, and the storks were crying among the reeds. I ran forward to the funeral urn and said loudly as I broke the clay seal, "Stand up, you man within there!"
Kaptah stuck his tousled head out of the jar, and I have never seen a more bewildered man. He moaned, "What is this foolery? Where am I? Where is my royal diadem, and where are the symbols of my majesty? I am naked and chilled--…
