6
As soon as Eie had Tutankhamon's consent he hastened to assemble many ships, and in these the whole court embarked. Akhetaton was abandoned by all save the embalmers in the House of Death, who were preparing the body of Akhnaton to live forever. The last of the inhabitants fled hastily and never looked behind them. In the golden house the eating and drinking vessels were left on the tables, while Tut's playthings lay abandoned about the floor in an eternal game of funerals.
Desert winds tore open the shutters; sand drifted over the floors where brilliant ducks flew through the ever green rushes and colored fish swam in salt water. The desert returned to the gardens of Akhetaton; fish pools dried up, irrigation ditches were blocked, and fruit trees withered. The mud of the house walls crumbled, roofs fell in, and the whole city decayed into ruins. Jackals howled through the empty halls, and on the soft, canopied couches they made their lairs. So perished the city of Akhetaton, as rapidly as Pharaoh Akhnaton had brought it to life.
The people of Thebes rejoiced greatly at the return of Ammon and the accession of the new Pharaoh. So foolish is the heart of man that he ever puts his hope in the future, learning nothing from his past errors and fancying that tomorrow must be better than today. The people lined the Avenue of Rams to greet their new Pharaoh with cries of joy and to strew flowers in his path.
But in the harbor and the poor quarter the ruins still smoldered; an acrid smoke arose from them and the river stank of carnage. Along the copings of the temple roofs, crows and vultures stretched their necks, too gorged to fly away. Here and there among the ruins and gutted houses, frightened women and children scrabbled after their household goods in the places where their dwellings had stood. I walked the quays, which still stank of stale blood, looking at the empty baskets and thinking of Merit and little Thoth, who had perished on Aton's account and through my madness.
My steps led me to the ruins of the Crocodile's Tail, and I thought of Merit, who had said to me, "Perhaps I am but the cushion to soften your loneliness when I am not your worn mat." I saw little Thoth; his cheeks and limbs were childishly soft, and he put his arm about my neck and laid his cheek to mine. With sharp smoke in my nostrils, I walked in the dust of the harbor, seeing before me the body of Merit transfixed and little Thoth's bloody nose and his hair matted and sticky with blood. I reflected that Pharaoh Akhnaton's death had been an easy one. I reflected also that nothing in the world is more terrible than the dreams of the Pharaohs, because the seed they sow is blood and death.
The jubilant shouts of the people reached my ears, as they greeted Pharaoh Tutankhamon in their delusion that this bewildered boy, whose thoughts ran only on a fine tomb, would root out injustice and restore peace and prosperity to the land of Kem.
I wandered thus wherever my feet led me, aware that I was alone and that my blood in Thoth had drained barrenly away. I cherished no hope of immortality; death was to me rather a rest and a sleep and the warmth of a brazier on a winter's night, Akhnaton's god had robbed me of my hope and my joy, and I knew that all gods dwelt in dark houses whence there is no return. Pharaoh Akhnaton had drunk death from my hands, but this held no consolation for me; with death he had drunk a most merciful oblivion. But I lived and could not forget. My heart was consumed with bitterness, and I nursed resentment against the people who were now bellowing before the temple like cattle, having learned nothing from the past.
My feet carried me to the ruins of the copperfounder's house; children hid themselves at my coming, and women digging amid the rubble for their pots and pitchers hid their faces when they saw me.
The mud walls of the house rose before me black with soot; the pool in the garden was dry and the boughs of the sycam…
