Pharaoh Read Online Free Page B

Narmer.
    Hawk gave a small cough from his cushion on the other side of the courtyard. ‘Because he is a eunuch,’ he said pleasantly, his frog eyes narrowing as he smiled. ‘Isn’t that so?’
    ‘But he has a beard!’ Eunuchs never grew whiskers, just as they were unable to have children.
    The Translator said something to the Trader. The Trader smiled and met Narmer’s eyes once again. He reached behind his ears and suddenly his beard fell into his lap.
    The Trader said something to the Translator, still with his eyes on Narmer.
    ‘My master says that not everything is as it seems, Prince Narmer,’ the young man translated.
    ‘My master was captured in a rebel raid back in his homeland, Sumer, when he was not much more than a toddler. His father led a party of soldiers to bring him back. But by then his manhood had been cut away.’
    ‘But…’ Narmer tried to think. ‘But how can he ever have a son and daughter?’
    ‘I am sorry, so sorry, great Prince. I cannot tell you. My master himself doesn’t know.’ The Translator’s voice was low, as though he shared his master’s sadness. But there was something more, thought Narmer suddenly. It was almost as though in his sorrow the Translator spoke in another voice. ‘He believes that one day, nevertheless, he will find his son and daughter. A dying promise never lies, even from an afreet. That is why he keeps on travelling. He knows that one day he will find them.’
    The Translator’s voice was back to normal. I was imagining things, thought Narmer. A servant glided from the shadows at a gesture from the King and filled their mugs again. Narmer sipped and let the conversation wash over him.
    It was nearly too much to take in. It had almost seemed as though the Trader were telling the story just to him. As though there were a message for him alone.
    But how could there be? Narmer wasn’t a trader. Nor was he hunting for the son and daughter he had never had.
    He glanced at the Trader. The man still seemed lost in thought. And the Translator’s face was hidden. But his brother gazed at him across the courtyard. In the growing shadows Hawk’s face seemed almost amused.

CHAPTER 4
    The next day Narmer woke before dawn. He needed to leave before his father’s guards saw him and tried to accompany him.
    A pang of guilt went through him. One day’s hunting was excusable. But two days in a row, when the dykes needed checking now that the floods were going down…
    Yet he had to see the Oracle. Surely when he told his father he’d understand. There was so much the Oracle could tell him that would help Thinis.
    He peered out of his room. No, no one about, not even the early sweepers in the royal courtyard. Every floor and street in Thinis had to be swept each morning, or the sand soon formed small dunes against the walls. Even during the floods the dust blew in from the hills, and the sand from the deserts beyond.
    Narmer slipped out through the courtyard, then under the archway.
    ‘Where are you off to?’ A soft voice came from the shadows under the colonnades.
    Narmer turned. It was Hawk. He leant against the walls of the palace, regarding Narmer with his usual small smile.
    ‘Hunting.’ Narmer held up his spears and slingshot, and a small bundle of food.
    ‘Off to catch a hippopotamus on your own, like our celebrated father?’
    ‘Nothing so grand,’ said Narmer. ‘Maybe a few pigeons. A fox or gazelle if I’m lucky.’
    ‘What a pity,’ said Hawk gently. ‘I’m sure a hippo would impress our father. It would be a compliment to have a son who caught a hippo, just like him.’
    Narmer grinned. ‘Maybe one day. See you this afternoon.’
    ‘Have fun, little brother.’ Hawk lifted a hand in farewell. His hands were always smooth, the hairs plucked with tweezers, the nails buffed with wax.
    Narmer broke into a jog as soon as he’d left the palace, acknowledging the bows and greetings of other early-rising people as he passed. The air was rich with