Beauty and the Pharaoh

Chapter 42 - [No Mercy and the Pharaoh]

Despite being the evil and all-powerful Pharaoh that everyone feared... I had never actually led my army into war. I never had the need too. People feared myself and my army enough to stay away.

The Egyptian army was the strongest force in all of the nations. It has been for thousands of years. That was why we have remained so powerful in the region, and everyone knew better than to mess with us.

Except the People of the Sea, of course.

We knew little about these people except that they came from somewhere past the horizon and the names of some of the tribes that previously invaded. We also knew that they had remarkable naval forces and unique weapons.

However, despite having the potential to be a valiant opponent to the Egyptians, they were cowardly in the sense that they only attacked when Egypt was weak... like attacking a man while sleeping.

They attacked during political chaos or during instability in the capital.

They attacked when the Pharaoh had lost the control and love of his people.

Which was exactly why I think they were attacking now.

The wizard had clearly been conspiring with them... and they thought I was gone. They thought I had been cursed and sent away and they thought they were going to catch us off guard. Clearly, they hadn't gotten the message.

I wasn't going to let these monsters into the heart of my country. We had the upper hand. We would take them down.

I hadn't expected to sleep well at all that night. I mean, how could I? Marching out to war isn't a thought that provides us with peaceful dreams.

And it didn't help that May was just lying there for most of the night, staring at the ceiling.

Early in the morning, after conducting our morning prayers, I passed my responsibility to the gods over temporarily to Lord Hepu, who was staying behind. I couldn't be conducting the scheduled prayers in the middle of a battle, after all. And after that was done, we were pretty much prepared to leave.

May was still awake.

She was sitting with my mother outside the throne room of the Memphis palace, waiting for me, obviously.

When she spotted me, she got up and rushed towards me. "When are you leaving?" She asked. I could see the exhaustion in her eyes. She wasn't good at staying up all night.

"Soon... within the next hour," I responded. "The soldiers are ready. The first army of charioteers are already riding North and we will be leaving with the second."

"How long will it take you to get there?"

"It shouldn't be more than a two day trip."

May sighed. "And how am I supposed to know you're safe? It's not like you have phones here."

I smiled at her. "You're just going to have to trust me."

She let out a short but unhappy laugh. "And when has that worked out for me?"

Though normally I would have been, I wasn't insulted by her words. I knew she was joking, but I couldn't blame her for being upset.

That was how it was like here... thousands and thousands of people had loved ones in the army and they would not know for months, sometimes years, if their loved one were safe. The only excepting was if the loved one knew how to read and write, but even then, sometimes delivering a letter could take months.