Mara, Daughter of The Nile

Inanni and Mara are led slowly through the long guardroom under the watchful gaze of courtiers, priests, ambassadors, and ladies. At the end, perched on an electrum throne, Queen Hatshepsut greets them with icy hauteur, a ceremonial beard on her chin. Not knowing what to say, Inanni begs Mara to pay the queen her compliments, and after a moment of timidity, Mara does. Hatshepsut turns to Count Senmut, her architect and right-hand man, and gloats that the princess is just what she expected. After a sneering remark about how pleased Thutmose will be to see her, she orders Mara to tell the princess that she will meet her bridegroom very soon.

The queen tells Lord Sheftu, who is almost unrecognizable in his regal linen, jewels, and gold, to personally arrange the marriage of Thutmose and the princess, adding some haughty remarks about Inanni’s “stupid, vulgar” appearance. In the corner behind Sheftu, Mara glimpses the cold, disquieting visage of her stone-faced master. Knowing that she can expose Sheftu’s plot at any time and reap the rewards of her dreams, she decides to bide her time and enjoy the luxuries of the palace a little longer. Because both men believe that she is their spy, there is nothing to stop her from “playing both ends against the middle” (84) and prolonging her delicate dance between the two sides as she gauges which one will benefit her the most. Now, the supercilious queen ends the audience with Inanni by laughing contemptuously at the nervous, homesick princess.

Within the hour, a summons comes for the princess from her “bridegroom,” Thutmose. Mara looks forward to the strange irony of the situation, in which she will play the part of the very messenger she has been ordered by Nahereh to expose. Entering Thutmose’s lavish rooms, Mara sees them as a luxurious prison, attended by guards who act more like Thutmose’s jailers than his protectors. Of short stature but dynamic and intense, Thutmose easily fits Sheftu’s description of being like a “lion.” Also like a lion, he is fierce in his derision of the foreign “bride” that Hatshepsut has chosen for him, whom he calls “monstrous” upon first sight. Bluntly, he refuses to marry this “barbarian,” but Mara spares Inanni’s feelings by mistranslating his words as gentle pleasantries. The king, who understands Babylonian, is perplexed by this and orders his scribe and the other attendants out of the room. Realizing that Mara is Sheftu’s messenger, Thutmose questions her closely about her mission while she continues to mistranslate his words so that Inanni will not suspect the true nature of the exchange.

The princess responds warmly to the king’s supposed salutations and praise but is puzzled when his facial expressions do not match his words. Finally, to Thutmose’s relief and joy, Mara delivers Sheftu’s message that the “war hawk” is coming. The elated king gives Mara a message for Sheftu: That, to furnish gold for the revolution, Sheftu must travel to the “River of Darkness” and seek the treasure of the one who sleeps there, taking even the “royal cobra” from his brow and his jeweled collar. With horror, Mara realizes that Thutmose wants Sheftu to rob a royal tomb—the worst crime imaginable. Like all Egyptians, she believes that the khefts (demons) who guard the dead will destroy Sheftu’s soul if he attempts to desecrate the tomb. As they leave Thutmose, Inanni is the happiest she has been since arriving in Egypt, as she now believes that the king has greeted her with love. Mara feels guilty for having raised Inanni’s hopes with deception, but above all, she feels pity for Sheftu, who must risk his immortal soul for the sake of the king. Eventually, though, she banishes these thoughts from her mind, telling herself that Sheftu and the foreign princess are “enemies” to her hopes.

Believing that she has been accepted by the king, Princess Inanni feels much better about her future in Egypt, though she still feels pangs of homesickness for her beloved Canaan. She continues to be in awe of the fearless Mara, though she considers the other woman’s style of dress to be scandalously immodest and her body too thin to be truly beautiful. Meanwhile, the evening has come, and Mara, obeying the note found in the honey cake, coaxes the princess into visiting the lotus garden with her. As they pass the court of the weavers, Inanni sees a woman carding wool, which reminds her of her pastoral homeland, and she asks if she can visit with this woman and visit the lotus garden some other time. In desperation, Mara scolds her for wanting to associate with a “common” weaver woman and finally shames her into continuing onward to the garden. However, Mara’s nervous haste makes Inanni suspicious.

At the lotus garden, a tall young man emerges from the shadows, and Mara uneasily introduces him to the princess as Lord Sheftu. Inanni suspects strongly that Mara has come to the garden specifically to meet with this man, but she cannot tell whether Mara is in love with him or is terrified of him. Again, the many words exchanged by the couple do not match the brief translations that Mara provides, and Inanni begins to suspect that her supposed conversation with the king was also an elaborate deception. Inanni decides that Thutmose does not intend to marry her and most likely despises her. Almost with relief, she gives up any hope of winning a place among these strange Egyptians, whose incomprehensible intrigues have nothing to do with her. She resolves that tomorrow, she will go alone to the court of the weavers to visit the woman who was carding wool, to talk wistfully of Canaan.

Mara tries to think up a strategy for slipping through the city gates on a regular basis, as visiting Sheftu in the city is the safest way of contacting him. The first meeting in the lotus garden was only a means of setting up future rendezvous with him; she did not give him the king’s message that night because the garden was too crowded. Now, as Mara prepares for bed, Chadzar, a Syrian who works for her stone-faced master, scratches at her door with an urgent summons. Harshly, the enslaved man orders her into a chariot and drives her at a furious pace through the city gates and into the streets of Thebes, finally stopping at a large house. Chadzar pushes her roughly inside and into the stony presence of her master, who asks her for a report of her findings. Mara tells him that she has learned nothing; because the king ordered everyone else out of the room, there was no one for her to eavesdrop on. Angrily, he tells her that the king’s scribe, guards, and other attendants are “hand-picked” spies of his and refers to them as “fools” for leaving the room. He warns her that he is losing confidence in her as well, but he agrees to give her one last chance to ferret out the identity of the king’s messenger. On the ride back, Chadzar gets into a heated argument with the gatekeeper, who demands to know whose chariot he is driving. In this way, Mara finally learns the name of her mysterious master. He is Nahereh, the brother of the queen’s chief architect, Count Senmut. Now Mara knows why his stony face looked so familiar. Terrified to be at the mercy of three of the most powerful people in Egypt—Hatshepsut, Senmut, and Nahereh—she almost wishes that she were back at Zasha’s.

The next night, Mara finds a way back into the city by using her seductive charms to get past the young guard at the gate, whom she beguiles with a story about a sick brother. Following Sheftu’s directions, she nervously makes her way to the shop of Nefer the goldsmith, where she encounters a shadowy figure in the darkness of the shop. To her great relief, it is the river captain Nekonkh, who cautions her not to make a sound. Stealthily leading her to the river, he shows her to a small boat helmed by a papyrus cutter named A’ank, who he says will be there every night in case she needs him. Before they get in, he warns her never to call Sheftu by his real name whenever they are at the Inn of the Falcon, but only by his alias, Sashai. He explains that few of their comrades know who Sheftu really is; they believe that he is a messenger for a higher-ranked person. After A’ank lets them off, Nekonkh leads her through dark, “evil-smelling” alleys to a nondescript door marked by the wooden image of a falcon. Beyond is a small courtyard and another door that leads into the Inn of the Falcon.

The innkeeper, Ashor, welcomes Mara and Nekonkh into the Inn of the Falcon, Sheftu’s secret base of operations. Ashor’s wife, Miphtahyah, stirs a pot of stew at the center of a lively horde of men and women, including a dancing girl and a juggler. Among them, Mara recognizes Sheftu in his disguise as a scribe. Now that he is no longer wearing the intimidating finery of a lord, his humble clothes and warm smile make Mara’s spirits rise. After some teasing banter, Sheftu tells her that Miphtahyah, whose “beady eye” unnerves Mara, was his nursemaid from infancy, while Ashor was his “first companion.” Sheftu adds that he first met the young king Thutmose at the age of 9 or 10, at school, when Hatshepsut was trying to “bury” her brother in the priesthood. He explains that the queen initially intended to murder Thutmose, but that a public miracle involving a golden statue of Amon prophesized that he would someday be the pharaoh. After that, the queen did not dare to harm him. Sheftu implies that this “miracle” was arranged by the priests and declares that the priesthood is ready to rise up against the queen in Thutmose’s name, along with a great many others, including everyone in the inn.

Mara realizes for the first time the full scale of Thutmose’s imminent revolution. She is further perplexed that Sheftu, the leader of this vast movement, enjoys a position of absolute trust in the queen’s inner circle. Still vacillating between feeling admiration for Sheftu and regarding him as a charming enemy, Mara hesitates to give him Thutmose’s message about the “River of Darkness.” The juggler, Sahure, interrupts their banter with insinuating questions about their relationship. This offends Mara, who distrusts his nosiness and cynicism. However, Sheftu reassures her that Sahure is a loyal comrade who is only curious. Mara reluctantly passes on Thutmose’s command that Sheftu rob a pharaoh’s tomb to furnish money for the revolution. Crying, she begs him not to put his soul in mortal jeopardy by committing this crime against the gods, but he is eager to comply with Thutmose’s order. Asking her why she is so concerned about him, Sheftu seizes her in his arms, then mocks her for flirting with the young guard who let her through the gate. As he turns to leave, Mara cannot tell if he is jealous or coldly indifferent.