The Plot on the Pyramid (5 page)
“Like Oneney’s beetles,” Nephoris said.
“We’ve killed the King’s man. Now the King will kill us,” one of the workers moaned.
“It was an accident,” Nephoris said.
“We all hated him,” Yenini sighed. “No one will believe it was an accident.”
“The King is coming this afternoon,” a man said. “How do you think he will kill us?”
“Club us to death,” someone suggested.
“Too quick and painless. Probably tie us to stakes in the desert and leave us to rot. Let the jackals eat us,” another man argued.
They all began to wail and sob. “Throw us in a pit of poisoned snakes!” came one loud cry.
Suddenly a voice called out louder than all the rest. “Stop it! Stop this pitiful noise!” Nephoris cried.
They stopped. They looked at the girl. “We’re going to die-ie-ie!” an old man croaked.
“No you are not!” Nephoris said. “Get back to work. There is another stone waiting on the barge by the river. Get it on a sledge. Drag it up the pyramid. That’s what you must be doing when the King arrives. Showing how hard you work for him – how much you worship him.”
She waved a hand at the scene below. “Look! The Nile is flooding. Amenemhat has brought you life for another year. Let him see how much you love him. Get building!”
Yenini frowned. “He will want to see Antef driving us.”
“And he will see Antef driving you,” Nephoris promised.
“We can’t pull him out from under the stone,” a man argued.
“And if we did he’d be a bit … flat,” Yenini argued.
“Just
do
it!” Nephoris said. “I’ll have Antef with you by the time you have the next stone at the foot of the pyramid.”
The men looked bewildered but wandered back down the pyramid to obey her. Nephoris raced past them like a Nubian antelope and set off across the plain to Lisht.
King Amenemhat’s boat drifted down the cool waters of the Nile and headed for Lisht …
King Amenemhat was carried in a shaded chair. That’s the only way for a god to travel. When he reached the pyramid he opened the curtain and looked out. His face was as calm as the carved lions in the temple, but inside he was excited.
He watched the Boat Gang heaving on the ropes and singing a hymn. A hymn about their glorious King Amenemhat. His Majesty was pleased.
Walking alongside the Boat Gang was a little man with a perfumed wig and a plaited beard. Between the lines of the hymn the King could hear the little man shouting. It was not very pleasant.
“You are the biggest bunch of brainless beetles on this pyramid and all you can do is sing. You can’t move one little stone and you think it’s something to sing about?” he shouted in his voice that was thin as a Nile reed.
He raised the whip and tried to crack it. The end of the whip lashed back and caught him on the end of his nose.
“Don’t laugh, you rabble of rats! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! If one man laughs I will have him taken to the top of the pyramid and thrown off! Now h-e-a-v-e!”
King Amenemhat said to a servant, “Send Antef to me.”
The servant hurried off and brought the little work-driver back. Antef held a hand to his injured nose and kept his eyes on the sizzling sand. All King Amenemhat could see was the dark wig and the plaited beard.
“Is the work going well, Antef?” the King asked.
“Very, very well. We shall be finished by harvest time. That Boat Gang from Lisht are wonderful.”
“You shout at them a lot!”
“Ah, but only because we all love you so much, we want to do better than our best for you.” Antef said humbly.
