Chapter 5

We finally sailed for Thebes before there could be any more invitations from the priests for dinner. The trip to Thebes was really rather short and Sally and I did not get to appreciate fully the pleasures of travel on the Nile. One thing for sure, though, travel by yacht was a hell of a lot more comfortable than travel overland.

We sailed up to the dock without much fanfare, but we were met by a detachment of soldiers to escort us to the palace. At this point, Sally and I were brushed aside by the usual flock of courtiers. We were shown to an apartment where we were told to wait until we were summoned. That was fine with us, and we spent a lot of time in the bath that was more like a swimming pool from its size. Hell, we might be very low on the totem pole as far as the locals were concerned, but we were living in the royal palace, and that could not be beat for luxury.

There were plenty of servants, but none of them were slaves. It seemed that we were not yet recognized to be that high in status, so we had to put up with regular employees. You can tell that we were broken hearted to be treated with such disdain.

Apparently, it took most of the day to get through the formalities of Queen Hepsol and Prince Kilgot's return to the palace and the loving arms of the Pharaoh. However, that evening, we were invited to the chambers of Queen Hepsol for a formal dinner. We were even provided with the proper clothing to wear to such an august event, and I thought Sally was very fetching with her gown covering only one breast and reaching to just above her knees.

My outfit was not so fashionable, as I was dressed as an officer in the Pharaoh's Army, and that was hardly more than a sleeveless tunic over a loincloth. Of course, I was not armed.

We arrived after most of the other guests were seated, and the irrepressible 6-year-old Prince Kilgot jumped from his place to run to embrace Sally. Not knowing the protocol for such an event, and even if there were one, Sally embraced him back, and Prince Kilgot refused to let her go until a seat was opened up beside him at the Royal end of the table. Naturally, I was invited to sit beside my wife, and that was our introduction to the rest of the royal court. I wonder how many noses were out of joint as a result of that?

There must have been a lot of scurrying around by the court staff as a result of this obvious display of favoritism because we were escorted to a different apartment when we left the dinner. The new apartment was even more luxurious that our previous one had been, and that was really saying something. We were not exactly sure of how to take this apparent boost in status, so we just rolled with the punches.

The next morning, we were ushered into a private meeting with Pharaoh Alquat himself. Queen Hepsol and Prince Kilgot were also there, so you can imagine just how "private" the meeting was. Actually, we were being honored as few had ever before been so honored, because we were getting the undivided attention of Alquat. Nevertheless, full royal protocol was observed, and we did prostrate ourselves before the pharaoh when we were introduced, but we were allowed to be seated as soon as that formality was over.

Alquat spent some time in thanking us for our service to Prince Kilgot, and seemed to carry on about his love for the boy. Uh-oh, my neck was in a noose because somebody was sure to trip the trapdoor if anything ever happened to the prince. The main good thing to come out of the audience as far as I was concerned was that my command was increased to 60 men and three sergeants.

That was when we found out that our apartment had a direct connection to the apartment assigned to Prince Kilgot so that Sally could be constantly on call. Her formal duty was to supervise his schooling in history, religion, and the social graces. By the way, it was my job to school the prince in self defense, since I seemed to be such a master of the art. His schooling in the military arts that every potential pharaoh had to know would come from regular Army officers.

Prince Kilgot had two older brothers, and they preceded him in the line of ascension to the position of pharaoh, but the current pharaoh could decree that anyone of his choice could become the next pharaoh. It certainly looked to me like Prince Kilgot was a likely prospect to jump ahead of his brothers: why was currently beyond me. Well, that was not our problem, but Sally and I had to plan for the possibility, provided that I could keep the boy alive long enough to be a viable candidate.

Okay, if I had to be an instructor in self defense, the lessons were going to start as soon as possible, and I was going to start him out with the Kubotan. That was not a classic kung fu weapon, but it was ideal for a small boy. It was nothing in this case but a simple copper rod about —" in diameter and 5" long. That was the best that I could come up with, since polycarbonate was a long way away.

It fit Kilgot's hand very well, and it certainly did not look like a weapon. What it did look like was a typical piece of junk a small boy would carry around for no good reason. I insisted that Kilgot never tell anyone that it was a weapon. Nevertheless, the Kubotan was a killing weapon when properly applied, and even a small boy had enough strength to use it that way if he had to. Fortunately, Prince Kilgot had nearly a year of training before he had to kill with the Kubotan.

We spent about six months in Thebes before anything remarkable came up. It was time for Alquot's annual precession up the Nile to inspect the results of the latest flood. This trip required several yachts, and Alquot's led the parade. Each of the top four queens had her own yacht, but she spent one night at a time aboard Alquot's yacht in her order of precedence. That meant that Hepsol spent the first night out of Thebes with the pharaoh and waited four more nights before she was to return to his bed.

Meanwhile, Kilgot remained aboard his mother's yacht, and Sally and I stayed with him. The transfer from yacht to yacht was made while they were tied up at a dock. On one occasion, Hepsol was transferring to Alquot's yacht. She was his favorite queen and the pharaoh was at the boarding ramp to welcome her aboard when the accident happened.

Somehow, another boat had broken loose from it moorings and drifted enough to bump firmly against Alquot's yacht. The jar was surprising to everyone, and the pharaoh was standing in such a place that he was thrown into the water. The pharaoh was wearing a heavy robe that dragged him under only moments after he hit the water.

Well, there were two grave dangers associated with this accident: the pharaoh could drown if he could not shake loose from his robes of office, or he could be grabbed by one of the crocodiles that populated the harbor and usually lived off of refuse that was thrown into the water. There was at least one death per week associated with the crocodiles, so they were no joke.

I had spent several summers during my time in high school and in college as a life guard at various swimming pools, so I did not hesitate to drop my sword and armor and dive in after the pharaoh. I found him struggling with his robe at the bottom of the river, and I managed to cut him loose with the knife that I routinely kept in a sheath under my tunic.

He went limp by the time I had him cut loose, and I was afraid that he might have been under too long. Nevertheless, I pulled him to the surface and shoved him at some soldiers standing at the side of the ship. They pulled him on board, but did not seem to know what to do after that. I scrambled aboard just as I felt what I was sure was a crocodile brush my legs. That was all of the incentive I needed to reach the deck.

Nobody else seemed to know what to do with the pharaoh, and a crowd was standing around and carrying on with wails and shouts of mourning. Dammit, they were acting as if the pharaoh were already dead, but I believed that there was still a chance to save him. Therefore, I started in with the standard artificial respiration that I had learned from the Red Cross many years in my past.