Soldier of Sidon

19

THE GREAT GOD of the South wishes to speak with me. The healer told me this, and it may be that it is true. We were fencing in the ma

Aahmes told me of this exercise. It is the way soldiers are trained in the army of Kemet. A stick is bound to the left forearm. It is the "shield." The stick in the right hand is the "sword." The point is forbidden-there is great danger if it is used. I fought each in turn, begi

Myt-ser'eu has a headache. She makes light of it, saying that she always has a headache in the morning. I set Uraeus to mixing wine and water for her, and Neht-nefret to coaxing her to drink it. I let each soldier drink too after he had fought.

When you fight a man with a shield, you try to get him to raise it so as to blind himself. This is much harder in the stick game, which may be good. I am not sure about that.

The men of Kemet fought well, all of them, as soon as they saw I would not strike soft. Uro fought first and nearly beat me. I had thought he would know less than he did, and was striving not to discourage him. He may have been trying not to embarrass me in the same way, and so we played at it for a time. Then he came at me in earnest and nearly won. I hit his head and stretched him on the deck.

And Myt-ser'eu cheered.

I am not sure why it has made me feel so much love for her, perhaps it is because I know how sick she felt. I forget. She and Muslak have told me, and Uraeus confirms it. So does this scroll. I can no longer remember Charthi's walled house and his gardens, which I read about before I began to write; but I have asked the healer, and he says it is only the head that forgets. The head is the seat of reason, the heart the seat of our feelings, pounding when we are moved. My heart will never forget Myt-ser'eu's cheering.

After that I fought the rest one by one. Aahmes was the best, the only one better than Uro. He is taller than I, a great advantage in this game. At last I tripped him, threw him down, and feigned to lop off his head.

The men of Parsa knew far less. They watched my face, not my stick, and my stick punished them for it. We will fence again when their bruises have healed.

The healer watched us just as the captain did. Neither offered to take part. When our fencing was done and we had washed away our sweat, the healer spoke to me privately, saying, "Is there anyone on board you would fear to fight with those sticks?"

I said of course that there was not, that I might be beaten but that no one who fears trivial defeats can ever learn.

"Suppose the swords were real?"

His question gave me pause. At last I said, "My slave Uraeus."

He laughed. "Not many men fear their slaves."

"Not enough, perhaps." I shrugged. "Have I offered to free him?"

"I don't know."

"Then I will tell him he is free today," I said.

"In that case you have," the healer told me. "You are so willing to free him that you will surely have offered him his freedom before."

I said I would ask him, and added that I had learned something new about myself that day.

"Not because I taught you." He shook his head. "All those who teach are hated."

"You mean my soldiers will hate me for teaching them the sword."

"No, that they hated you before it." (I do not credit this.) "I myself teach no one, knowing I would make my students stronger to destroy me. I advise you to follow the same course."

"So you don't teach me."

He smiled and shook his head.

"My men will follow me in battle," I told him. "You'll see."

"Of course they will. They know you're a fine fighter. But where there is no danger, your danger will be from them."

I thanked him for the warning, and said I would tell Uraeus to remind me of it.

"Who will warn you of him?"

I considered that and said, "You will-or Myt-ser'eu."

The healer chuckled, recalling unpleasantly the chattering of his pet. "Next you will say that we will warn you of each other."

"If necessary, I'm sure you will." I turned to go.

He stopped me. "These things were not what I wished to tell you. The Red One would speak with you. When we met I promised you I would take you to his temple. You will have long forgotten our talk, unless you read it in the scroll you carry."

I confessed that I remembered nothing of it, and asked who the Red One was.

"He has many names."

The healer's monkey dropped from the rigging to his shoulder, but he paid no heed to it or its noise.

"You and I may call him Seth. I am one of his priests."

"He is a god?"

The healer nodded. "The Desert God and the Dark God, the god of night and storm, the son of Heaven's Vault. Tonight, when everyone is asleep, you are to come here, to the bow, to await his coming. If he does not appear before sunrise, he will not come."

It was already evening when the healer said this. We soon put in at this town. I ate with our captain, whose name is Muslak, and his wife, Neht-nefret. Myt-ser'eu drank more beer than Muslak, beer I bought her freely. I lay beside her on the roof of our i

The sailor Muslak had left to watch it soon slept. I waited, sleepy and too full of beer and barley cakes, until a tap on my shoulder made me turn about quickly.

It was a woman, tall and beautiful. She smiled at me, and held up her hands to show that she held no weapon. "I am Sabra, and your friend. Did you leave Myt-ser'eu alone, Latro?"

I nodded.

"Let us hope no evil befalls her. May I ask why you are here?"

I said that the healer had told me to wait here for the Red One.

She laid her hand upon mine, and her hand was cold and hard. "Should he appear, Latro, you must make certain that he is indeed the Red One."

I slept and woke, and slept and woke. Walked the ship from end to end many times, sat, and slept again.

At last I was joined by a man I did not know. He looked tired, and I supposed he wished to sleep. I talked with him for a while even so, for I wished to remain awake and was finding it difficult. I said that he seemed to have had a bad night of it at the i

"Oh, I did!" He laughed, laughing at his own misfortune, which made me like him. "I paid to sleep on the roof. A woman woke me-it must have been very late-and offered to lie with me. One of these Riverland women." He extended his hand, palm up. "You know."

I said I did, since he clearly expected it.

"I asked how much, and she said she'd do it for whatever I was willing to give. Like any fool I said all right. Her head was shaved, so she wasn't a low-class woman. She had no wig, which made me wonder." Laughing at his own folly, he shook his head. "I like to think I'm a knowing man. This ought to be a lesson to me.

"I told her to lie down, and lay down beside her, and explained a few things I wanted her to do as well as I could in the barbarous speech of this land. She didn't speak our tongue as well as you do, but she had a few words, the kinds of things they talk about in Tower Hill. So we understood each other well enough.

"Things were starting to get interesting when I looked up and saw another woman with a knife. I couldn't see her face, but the moonlight gleamed on the blade and that was all I needed to know. I yelled, the woman on top of me rolled off, and the other woman slashed at us. She missed me, but she cut the woman who'd been lying with me-caught both hips."