Chapter One
City
of Memphis, Reign of King Djoser: approximately 2646 BC
"I need you to build a Temple to Nuit, Goddess
of the Sky," King Djoser intoned as he took a date from the bone platter
held up by the young black haired girl. He bit into the date. "The priests
tell me she wishes her temple to be built outside Djeba," he said as he
bit into the date again, finishing the dark fruit.
The High Priest Imhotep merely inclined his head.
"The Temple shall be built, my King. Nuit's Temple shall have walls of
lapis lazuli, to represent the dark night sky with the stars," he said as
he picked up an amber necklace and held it up to Ra's light.
Turning the amber necklace, Imhotep noticed how the
amber caught Ra’s light and reflected Ra’s golden fingers. There was an ant caught in one of the large
honey colored amber stones; it had been carrying a bee’s wing when it wandered
into the path of the ancient sap dripping down the pine tree.
"It has been said that the Physician, High
Priest and Architect Imhotep's skill is known over to the Eurphrates and Tigris
Rivers," King Djoser said, indicating that Imhotep should accept a faience
cup of barley beer.
"I am pleased that my efforts do not go
unnoticed," Imhotep replied, taking the proffered cup from a young girl
who offered it to him.
"Efforts? Here sits the world's renowned
physician and he refers to his miracles as 'efforts!" King Djoser
exclaimed. Imhotep merely inclined his head. Djoser continued. "Your
treatment of the swollen belly of my son was nothing short of a miracle,"
Djoser commented. "Tell me, how did you treat the Hawk in the Nest’s
illness?"
"Usually, when the lower right side of the
abdomen swells and grows hard, there is nothing anyone can do," Imhotep
said, taking a sip of his beer. "When a corpse afflicted with swollen
belly was brought to me, I took the opportunity to examine the area of the
swelling. I noted that there is an appendage at the bottom of the intestine
that was swollen," Imhotep replied.
"So you found a way to remove the swollen
appendage!" Djoser exclaimed again, pleased that he had discovered what
Imhotep had done. Imhotep merely inclined his head.
"In your son's case, the Gods decreed he would
live. But the Gods decreed that your mother's daughter's son would join the
afterlife," Imhotep said, a bit sadly.
"Such is the will of the Gods. Neb had work to
do in the afterlife," Djoser said, sipping his own beer. He motioned for a
courtier to bring a scroll and hand it to Imhotep. "Your fame has
increased my stature, and the stature of Egypt. I am pleased to honor you with
another title: Vizier." Djoser said, as he took another date from the
platter offered by the slim young girl.
Imhotep inclined his head as he accepted the
proffered scroll. "Thank you, my King. Architecture is one of my stronger
suits," Vizier Imhotep told Djoser as he took a sip of the barley beer.
"The priests say Nuit's Temple needs to be
built by the the time the large star in the north is next to the full moon. Did
that make sense?" Djoser asked Imhotep.
Imhotep nodded. One of his myriad duties to the
King was that of High Priest and Physician. And as High Priest, he'd known
astrology like the back of his hand. Djoser was telling him Nuit's temple must be
built by the beginning of the second flooding of the Nile. In other words,
herTemple must be built in less than two harvests of the dhurra wheat.
Imhotep's first love was architecture, although as
a priest, he'd been trained as a physician. As a child, he loved to take stones
and build small things. Later, he'd figured out how to cut the stone, and make
the stones fit together to build a wall taller than his head. At that point,
his imagination had soared and he began to dream of building soaring stone
buildings which would pierce the belly of Ra.
It was he who had designed and supervised the
building of the miraculous step pyramid--the stairway to the afterlife--on the
Plain of Giza at Saqqara. Already, the traders from across the Great Green had
brought word to their own people about the miraculous vision Imhotep had had in
building the pyramid.
Giza was where priests before him had trod upon
this plain for thousands of years, thousands of harvests. Legends handed down
from antiquity said that Giza had been inhabited for fifteen thousand years--a
staggering number in Imhotep's mind.
Imhotep brought his mind back to the present.
Nuit's Temple needed to be built--and quickly. He could use the leftover stone
from the quarrying of the Step Pyramid and float the stone downriver to Djeba.
He knew her temple would need to be small, no larger than an arrow's cast
across. He would festoon the walls of the temple with murals and stud the walls
with the stone of Nuit--lapis lazuli.
The dark blue stone with golden flecks was the
earthly embodiment of the velvety dark night sky studded with stars. Lapis
lazuli was a rare stone, traded from far beyond the Tigris River from the mines
in those distant lands. Lapis was a royal stone, and only royalty could wear the
precious dark blue stone as jewelry. And lapis lazuli would be used--albeit
sparingly--in Nuit's Temple.
"When can I see the Temple's plans?"
Djoser now asked Imhotep, interrupting his thoughts.
"They shall be ready by the next full moon in
less than a week. Her Temple needs to be built in less than two harvests of the
wheat," Imhotep replied.
"I shall provide the lapis lazuli for her
Temple myself," Djoser said, and motioned for another young girl, her eyes
the color of honey and hair the same color, to bring him a faience glass of
barley beer.
"That young one's hair and eyes are the same
color," he noted to Imhotep, the changing of the subject indicating the
King wished to talk of something else now that the demands of the priests had
been discussed. He took a sip of his barley beer, twirling the faience around
so as to catch the sunlight. "What's her name?"
"I have named her Khutenptah. It is said she
was washed ashore at the mouth of the Mother Nile when a tempest stirred the
waters. Pieces of a wooden boat washed up with her. She came laden with the
amber stone you adore so much," Imhotep told his King.
Indeed, this was true. Khutenptah had been washed
ashore, bleeding and frightened, during a storm on the Great Green. Tied to her
waist were large leather bags of the golden colored amber stone and it was this
floating stone that had help keep her afloat after the flimsy boat in which she
and her people had traveled the rivers in had broken apart in the stormy sea.
She was the only survivor.
Imhotep had had pieces of the boat retrieved and
after a few months of studying them had concluded that the boat, although made
of wood, had been constructed shoddily. He knew wood floated and wood could be
used to make boats but reed boats were much easier to handle.
"A fitting name for your servant," Djoser
said, sipping his beer. Imhotep was High Priest of Ptah and it had pleased him
to name this young girl for the God Ptah.
The King had fallen silent, watching Khutenptah and
the large amber stones she wore as a necklace. She now danced for King Djoser,
a silent dance, a sinuous dance, a dance without drums, without singers.
Imhotep took advantage of the King's distraction to
think his own thoughts. He thought about how to build the small Temple to Nuit
in Djeba. Yes, the walls would be studded with lapis lazuli.
But there was a flicker on the edge of his mind.
Each time he imagined Nuit's Temple, he saw a great shaking of the earth, and
three of the Temple walls falling inwards. He saw his own Step Pyramid, and
three other Pyramids, their sides smooth, exploding into bits of dust,
billowing the dust clouds up to meet Ra, and Nuit.
Imhotep saw a man, distantly (and he realized with
a start that he was looking at the future). This man was tall, dark haired and
dressed in flowing black clothes edged in silver (and at the sight of the silver
edged black clothing, Imhotep gave an inward shudder of awe, for he felt this
man was an earthly Son of Nuit). The man was placing a lapis lazuli ring in the
Temple, right where Imhotep planned to erect Nuit's Shrine.
And Imhotep felt that this ring was--or would
be--very important to help ward off what Imhotep felt was a catastrophe looming
in the Son of Nuit's lifetime.