Chapter 7

This time, it was only Pharaoh Alquat who was hunting. The previous day was just to let everybody who attended the hunt be able to say that he was there and participated. This day was reserved for the pharaoh, and there were only three active boats in the water: the pharaoh's and two rescue boats to cover for accidents and to try to rescue the pharaoh if something went wrong.

Hell, I had heard the stories of previous hunts, and I knew how useless those two guard boats were. If anything went wrong, it would be up to me to save Alquot. This time, there was no fooling around: this run was for the pharaoh and everybody knew it. If the pharaoh got a hippo, it would be a day of rejoicing. If the pharaoh failed to get a hippo, it would practically wreck the pharaoh's reputation as a master hunter, and that was of paramount political importance. Egypt was not a democracy, but the pharaoh still needed the active support of the people, and he would lose a lot of that if he turned out to be a wimp at hunting.

The priests had spent the whole night entreating the gods to make the pharaoh look good today, and they would lose some of their mojo if he didn't. Therefore, it was crucial to the priesthood for Alquot to bag a hippo and to look heroic while he was doing it. Otherwise, their influence would fall, and they could not stand for that to happen.

The first thing of importance was to find a concentration of hippopotamuses so that the pharaoh would have something to go far. That was in the hands of the priests and the professional hunters who were along for just that purpose. It took nearly two hours of searching before a suitable group of hippos could be found. At last, the hippos were found and were in a place where there was a decent chance of making a kill.

We set out with the pharaoh in the front of the small boat. I was right behind him, and the guide was behind me. The two paddlers were in the rear of the boat, and a lot depended on their skill in holding the boat in the proper position for a suitable kill. For practical purposes, I knew nothing about hippo hunting, but I was positioned so that I had a chance of saving the pharaoh if something went wrong. I figured that my best chance was to do what the guide told me to do.

We were skillfully paddled into place just to the left side of a hippo that was facing the same way as we were. That let the pharaoh drive his spear almost straight down into the backbone of the hippo with his more powerful right side toward the beast. I have to admit to being in awe of the guide and the paddlers as we slipped into place. The hippo had to know that we were there, but it did nothing to interfere with us.

The pharaoh stood in the prow of the little boat with his spear ready to be driven into the hippo's back. There was very little margin for error here, because a miss was going to put a painful slash in the hippo's back and surely result in retaliation from the massive animal.

Traditionally, I would also be holding a spear, but I had much more confidence in my ability with a khopesh, so that was what I was holding. Just to be on the safe side, I had a second one lying at my feet. I was able to buck tradition by pointing out that the pharaoh had a spear, so he was bound to kill the hippo on his first strike.

Anyway, we slid into perfect position, and the pharaoh struck. My God! His stroke was perfect, and he severed the hippo's spinal cord. This was obvious from the hippo's reaction, and the crowd of spectators gave out with a massive cheer.

God damn it!!! Where did that come from!? Just as the cheer was trailing off, the middle of the boat was swept up out of the water, and the boat broke in half. The guide and the paddlers were floating away as they hung onto the sides of the boat, but the pharaoh and I seemed to be floating into a maelstrom of fiendish thrashing about by several hippos.

Alquot almost fell out of the boat, but I managed to grab the waistband of his loin cloth and to pull him to the bottom of the boat. Suddenly, we were in for the battle of our lives as several hippos tried to get to us. I was sitting down at this point, and I managed to brace with my feet so that I could hold my place. I picked up the second khopesh from the bottom of the boat and was holding one in each hand.

All I could think of to do was to slash at any bit of flesh outside the boat that I could reach. This was usually some part of the head of a hippo, although I suppose that I must have slashed at backs, too. Anyway, I did see a few sections of nose float away in the chaos of me flailing away at anything that I could reach.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh Alquot managed to right himself and to pick up one of the spare spears that were lying in the bottom of the boat. He, too, was stabbing at any hippo that got within his reach, and he did manage to hit a few. We were frantically trying to drive away the mass of hippos around us when a rope flew at us and almost struck me in the face.

I grabbed the rope and hung on for dear life as we were pulled away from the hippos toward one of the yachts. That was a boat large enough to resist the efforts of the hippos to sink it, and we would be completely safe if we could get aboard.

It took a lot of work on all our parts with me holding on to the rope with both hands while Alquot stabbed at hippos with his spear, and the seamen on board the yacht pulled us toward safety. As soon as we bumped against the side of the yacht, I pushed Pharaoh Alquot up to the waiting hands of the seamen to be pulled aboard. Once his feet cleared the gunwale of the yacht, I jumped for the same gunwale. My fingers caught, and I was hanging there for a moment until I was also pulled aboard. I looked back just in time to see our piece of the hunting boat chomped in two by a hippo. Dammit, that was too close to be anything but a nightmare.

Later on, I found out that the guide and the two paddlers had succumbed to the onslaught of the enraged hippos. Dammit, that was all of the hippo hunting that I wanted to be involved in, unfortunately, I was outvoted!

However, at least that was the end of the hunting for the day. The pharaoh and I were helped into our respective quarters and tended by too damned many servants. I don't know what Alquot did, but I chased everybody but Sally out of my cabin while I tried to calm down from the ordeal. It took nearly an hour of shaking and hugging Sally for me to calm down enough to eat a bit of fruit. I quit trying to eat at that point because I nearly vomited, but I got myself under control well enough to answer a summons from the pharaoh's chambers.

I had to lean on the summoner to make the few steps to the pharaoh. It wasn't that I was injured, it was just that I was so tired that I hardly had the strength to stand. Alquot was reclining in his bed when I was helped to his side. He immediately called for a lounge for me to rest on. Hardly was I seated when Alquot said, "Billackerman, you have saved me again! This is twice that you have pulled me from the jaws of Anubis, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it. In fact, I want the whole of the Egyptian Empire to know how much I appreciate your actions.

"Therefore, I want to change your name. From now on, I want you to be known as Pharaoh's Champian. The spire to be erected in honor of this day will have your new name prominently displayed, and your likeness will be carved into the stone beside mine. You are truly a hero of Egypt!"

I thanked Pharaoh Alquot profusely for the honor done to me, but what I really thought was that I was really in trouble, now. I was a marked man, marked for the honor done to me instead of to any number of Egyptian nobles who figured that they deserved the honors more than I did. I had to be especially on my guard for the next few years because these damned Egyptian nobles had very long memories. Starting at this moment, I was a prime target for assassination, and there was nowhere for me to hide. My size, alone, made me stand out in a crowd and made me an easy target to find. Shit, now the bodyguard needed bodyguards!

Later, at the banquet that evening, I found out that there would be at least one more day of hippo hunting. Prince Amtilptah and Prince Cormitah still had not had their chances at a hippopotamus, so that was scheduled for tomorrow. At least, I did not have to go with them. They had their own bodyguards, and one of them would go with each prince.