"A masterfully told tale-rich, riveting, and utterly transporting. I couldn't put it down."
~ Historical Fiction Review
Excerpt
CHAPTER 3: THE KING’S FEAST
A week after the unnatural darkening of the sun –the serpent god’s attack on the god of the sun, according to the Egyptian astrologer—Thut-Moses and the King had mostly put the event behind them. More pressing matters demanded their attention. To wit, a royal feast.
The kingdom was hosting a grand feast in the Great Hall of the Palace. Prominent diplomats and merchants from neighboring kingdoms were invited. Most had arrived by ship. Spring began the season for commerce and travel on the Great Sea. The spring winds were kinder to sailing vessels than the storms of winter.
Thut-Moses, as the King’s scribe and aide, would be the King’s eyes and ears for the event and would make sure that everything went smoothly. The King trusted him. He knew that he had won the King’s trust by always being deferential in speech, always careful of the King’s feelings. The Nubian had been taught well at the scribal school, which had educated him in the ways of courtly life as well as in languages.
As the various diplomats and their aides gathered in the Great Hall, Thut-Moses welcomed them at the door. He made a memorable sight, with his height, ebony skin, and his fine robe of many colors. His features were even and pleasing. His face was clean-shaven. In fact, as a
eunuch, his face was always clean-shaven. Eunuchs were unable to grow facial hair.
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At the dinner party, Thut-Moses brought the visitors to where the King sat, on a fine chair at one end of the hall. As the King stood to greet his visitors, Thut-Moses noted that His Majesty made a fine picture, dressed his royal robes with their stripes of purple. Although Thut-Moses did notice a few ceases adorning the King’s otherwise pristine forehead.
“It is a pleasure to see so many friends sitting down together for a feast!” the King said.
As the usual babble of voices started up, with the conversations between one diplomat and another, Thut-Moses took a moment to appreciate the luxury of the event: pedestals throughout the room displaying golden statuettes of Baal, intricately designed pottery from the Aegean. There were potted palm trees and chattering monkeys scampering in their branches. There were golden wine goblets for each guest. Serving girls brought out plates of cheeses, olives, and bread and a meal of kid goat prepared in goat milk.
As dusk was falling, torches were lit in the hall. And the guests were given a last goblet of wine, as the after-dinner entertainment began.
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David the Bard
Strumming on his lyre, David, the King’s bard took center-stage and prepared to sing and play his instrument. With dark curly hair, flashing dark eyes, and a charming smile, David was a handsome young man. Thut- Moses smiled as he looked at David, as the bard’s antics often amused him.
Thut-Moses knew that the King’s favorite part of any dinner party was the entertainment that followed. He would drink a goblet of sweet red wine and listen to David play his lyre.
Also enjoying the music were the two royal wives arrayed in their finery and jewels. Thut-Moses thought the two of them looked splendid. Both dressed to the height of fashion, with fine robes in the royal purple and blue, with kohl on their eyes and crimson on their cheeks, and their hair swept up in ornate bronze pins.
Thut-Moses was friends with the First Wife and shared a smile with her.
After a brief prayer to Baal, there followed a bawdy love song from the Egyptians. Thut-Moses appreciated the subtlety of this arrangement. An Egyptian love song made an excellent
bridge between the different countries represented by his guests. It provided a means of crossing all cultural boundaries and appealing to Hittite, Cypriote, and Egyptian alike. The ballad named body parts and expressed endless yearning on the part of the young lovers.
Seated in front of the group, David strummed a few notes on the lyre. A young woman appeared. With brown skin, slender arms and legs, and a fine-boned face, she appeared Ethiopian. Dressed in a tunic of the finest linen, nearly translucent, in the Egyptian style; she wore a red scarf around her hips, with small bells attached. The dancer proved a mesmerizing sight as she undulated the music.
She started singing, with David playing the lyre. Her voice was clear and strong. She danced to the music as well, with movements of her hands, swaying of her hips, and tapping of her bare feet.
I am dark, from the desert, baked dark in the desert sun. But my beloved, he seeks me out, he calls me.
Where is my beloved? I go to look for him.
He is tall like the cedars of Lebanon. His legs are like pillars of fine marble.
His hair is black with wondrous curls. His lips are ripe like a pomegranate.
I seek him in the streets. I seek him in the gardens. Have you seen him, O daughters of the city?
My heart yearns for his touch. My ears ache for the sound of his voice.
David then strummed another chord and sang the man’s response. Thut-Moses noted the guests’ evident enjoyment of this musical interlude. He thought, “No surprise there, given the number of cups of wine they have drunk.”
The evening wound down after that. Pleasantries were exchanged all around. The diplomats were heading off to the chambers provided for them, for the duration of their stay in the kingdom.
The King was also evidently pleased with the evening, Thut- Moses watched as he bid his wives good night and went off to spend time with a young concubine, which was a predictable effect of the Egyptian love poems.
