Chapter 7

The first day of the Festival of Opet saw the Barques of the Gods brought into the Royal Temple of Amun in Luxor. The shrines of the worshiped trio were removed and displayed in the temple sanctuary. They would remain there for twenty-seven days and return to Karnak by sailing down the River Nile.

After Ramses accepted the Holy Barques, the priests and priestesses of the Cult of Amun Ra returned to Karnak. The return journey down the Avenue of Ram-Headed Sphinx was just as boisterous as the entry because excited crowds still crammed both sides of the route. Even though they were without the Shrine Barques the crowds cheered the priests and priestesses as they passed.

Kopi spoke with Sulihotep as soon as they were back at Karnak.

“My Lord, I need to go to the Palace and speak with my mother. It appears much has happened since I saw her last. My half-sister Bintanath is not to be trusted, she is always scheming. She is the perfect wife for the conniving Inumut.”

Sulihotep nodded his agreement, “Go see her tomorrow, Princess, when there will be fewer revelers out. I will send a few priests with you to make it seem as if it were a pilgrimage.”

Kopi thought about what all this might mean. Was her mother no longer First Queen? Why had Ramses allowed Bintanath to wed outside the family? She shook her head and took a deep breath. Master Sulihotep cautions that over thinking a problem usually kept you away from the right answer. A visit with her mother might clear everything up in a few minutes.

Kopi entered the quarters she shared with Ruth, Li Na and Alaric. The two rooms were small, but they were sufficient for their simple needs. The main room had a few cushions and a low table they could sit around to talk, write or study. The sleeping chamber had a wooden bed large enough for the four of them. The mattress was made of pounded soft river reeds, horsehair and goose down encased in a linen cover. Hala found a blue disk on the table, her family’s sign that they were at the baths.

The underground baths at Karnak were a couple of natural caverns discovered some three hundred years earlier during the reign of Amenhotep II. The caverns had a small spring running through them. Amenhotep’s engineers diverted the spring to the left-hand wall and built a limestone pool twenty feet by thirty feet in each of the caverns. The pools sloped gently from a depth of two feet to four feet. Those same engineers dug a small tunnel from the caverns to the sacred lake. The inlet of this aqueduct was at the top edge of the lake. Sun warmed water from the lake slowly but constantly filled the baths and the cooled water exited into the spring. Since the lake itself was fed by a couple of springs the water level stayed constant.

Hala found Ruth and Li Na alone in the pool designated for women. She hurriedly shed her robe and thin shift and joined her fellow wives in the lukewarm water. Yes, they were all joyously married to Alaric and each other now. They were joined in a beautiful ceremony conducted by the Amunaten himself just six months ago. Ruth and Li Na grabbed her and put her between them.

“You were perfect today Little Princess, so you deserve a reward,” Ruth said, her voice sultry.

Kopi nodded and cast her eyes down submissively. Ruth was the First Wife and very assertive.

“Good girl - now stand up straight and turn around,” Ruth ordered.

When Kopi complied, Ruth and Li Na dipped into a clay jar and pulled out a handful of thick fragrant soap. The soap was made from animal fat, ash, and the oil of a Date Palm. Li Na started washing Kopi hair. Kopi still wore her hair in the short pageboy popular with Egyptian noble women while her sister wives wore theirs long. Ruth began washing the princesses’ body using a rag made of coarsely woven papyrus. When Ruth reached Kopi’s breasts, she latched onto an engorged nipple and squeezed. Kopi’s larger than average breast looked even bigger on her small frame.

“Did it excite our Little Princess to be the center of attention, today?” Ruth casually asked.

Kopi blushed crimson but kept silent. Ruth squeezed her nipple harder and Kopi went up on her toes. “Y-y-yes, Senior Wife,” she stammered.

Ruth smiled. When Kopi called her Senior Wife, the Princess was ready to play.

“Go rinse your hair and then stand right here,” Ruth ordered pointing to the edge of the pool.

Kopi walked out into the deeper water and dipped down to rinse the soap out of her hair. Kopi, like Li Na, was barely five feet tall so she didn’t have to dip much to have her head under water. Kopi rose up and squeegeed her hair back behind her ears. Then she walked back to where Ruth pointed. At five feet six inches Ruth was a tall woman by the standards of their time. She was also strong and muscular.

“Lean over and grab the edge of the pool,” Ruth commanded.

Kopi complied and added icing to the cake by laying her head on her crossed arms and pushing her small butt up in the air.

Ruth brushed her hand across Kopi’s firm ass cheeks and grabbed her mound.

“This is how you’ll be when our husband takes you tonight. Only then your head will be between my thighs.”

Kopi shuddered in lust. “As you command Senior Wife,” she moaned.

Then Ruth turned to the smirking Li Na. “You won’t be so smug tomorrow night when it’s your turn, slave,” Ruth growled.

Li Na couldn’t hide a small smile as she bowed her head and softly replied, “Yes, Mistress.”

True to her word, Ruth had Kopi in that position when Alaric walked into their sleeping chamber twenty minutes later. Alaric smiled and quickly stripped.

“What’s going on here?” He demanded in a mock stern voice.

Ruth held Kopi’s head so she couldn’t talk and answered their husband.

“Our Junior Wife needed a reminder of her place in the family,” Ruth explained.

“Is that so,” said Alaric as he climbed onto the bed.

He knee walked up behind his teenaged Princess Bride and gave her a cupped hand swat on her firm little upturned ass. It wasn’t a hard slap, but it sounded like a thunderclap in the small room. Then Alaric quickly sank into to her hot tightness in one hard plunge.

When he bottomed out, she gave a whining moan, “you are too big, Husband,” she complained. He smacked her on the ass again.

“You know you love it my little royal strumpet,” he replied.

Alaric pulled out of Kopi when she was almost unconscious from her orgasms. He pushed her to the side and pounced on Ruth.

Ruth was a challenge that only Alaric was up to. He provided Ruth with the vigorous love making she craved, while Kopi and Li Na languidly pleasured each other.

Alarec was reaching for Li Na and the dream ended...

Johnny woke up the women the next morning. “Get up my lazy wives, and let’s go for a run.”

“I have a better idea,” said Mia as she stretched her hands over her head, her pert breasts on display. “Instead why don’t you finish what you started last night. Seems to me the dream ended before your Asian wife had her turn.”

Johnny grinned, dove back into the bed and did his best.

The conversation at breakfast was lively. Rachael was especially animated. “I can’t believe I was like that back then!” she exclaimed.

Mia laughed. “You weren’t, Ruth was. You should take a lesson from her and loosen up some,” she said.

Rachael blushed but said, “it was great in the dream so maybe someday.”

Johnny had developed a routine of having open clinic hours in the morning for anyone in the area who needed his services. After lunch he went down into the temple tunnels and helped the archeologists in any way he could. Hala usually spent the afternoon in the dispensary doing paperwork and making sure they had enough meds and supplies. She also saw the occasional woman patient with problems they were embarrassed or scared to bring to Johnny.

So after lunch on the day after Kopi led the dream procession, Johnny wandered down to the blocked ramp that supposedly led up to the Sanctuary of the colossal Temple of Ra. Rachael and Mia were speaking with Hany Gamil. They were discussing what Rachael and Mia discovered while mapping the temple tunnel complex.

“Mister Gamil, we figured out that the rubble blocking the ramp is at least fifty feet thick not counting the stuff laying here at an angle. Given the size of the tunnel, that is a massive amount of material. Our mining engineering consultant estimates there are more than two hundred fifty cubic yards of rock and dirt here. Digging it out by hand and hauling it out of the tunnel would require a lot of men and a lot of time, so we are going to abandon the idea for now,” she said.