The Tale of Aswan

(Note:Sekhmet is Sepdet’s mother, Ma’i her father, and Ibis her uncle.)

The Tale of Aswan

spoken by djed-Sekhmet Ma’at, ronin Galliard of the Silent Striders:

“This is a thing that happened not so long ago, in the land of Khem, that which you younger tribes call Egypt, gift of the Nile. And so she is, even today, when our people have diminished in the long battle against the shadow that reaches for her unceasingly with its coils. Egypt’s secrets and sacred things lie hidden now, in the red lands on either side of the River, and her cities try to blot out the ancient places, and the ignorant ones pollute the River they once revered, yet… she endures.

“Still the Nile swells for them, year after year, at the summons of the Dog-Star in the month of Wep-renpet when she rises from the house of the Sun. Sometimes, there are the fat years, when the Nile embraces the canals and planting-places, and fish, fowl and field yield all abundance. And there are the lean years, when stomachs are tight and the grain-houses yield a store of dust instead of meal.

“Or at least, that is how it was, until the homids did a foolish thing.

“Impatience and ignorance are as deadly a foe as the Wyrm. Thus, not content with the bounty of Gaia which they had, they decided to hoard the life-giving waters that had freely blessed them for millenia. Did not the youngest child of the apes know the tale of the goose and its egg? But no, they conceived of a dam, and a dam they must have, and all our battling in secret could only delay, not dissuade, this madness. Our numbers were few, and the Veil needs must come even before our precious River. The homids foolishly twisted our advice and somehow thought that saving a few stones– an ancient temple from times when their ancestors knew how to honor land and sky– would atone for their folly. Aswan High Dam was built; the ancient and present-day treasures were buried beneath a tide more final than any mountain of sand.

“I wept when I heard of it.

“At this time there was come out of the Red Land, out of the desert, out of the Valley of Kings, a pack born and bred in the wild. No-longer-cubs were they, but not yet wise by years; but out of the desert they came to destroy the evil that was Aswan. The elders of their sept shook their heads and said:

‘No. Yours is not the way. With the shift of sands, you will understand.’

“Still the pack’s leader took a mighty oath that none would rest until the Nile ran free. They called themselves the Defenders of Hapi, which is the spirit of the River. They trained long and grew strong and looked to the day of deliverance.

“And so it came to pass, in the month of Wep-renpet, when the Dog-Star rose from the house of the sun to summon a Nile that could rise no more, this pack set out. Up the River went they, swift and silent in the True World beyond this one. Up the River went they, past swaying papyrus and glistening lotus, past moon-shaped reed boats that plied the currents though none now are left to steer them, past red hippopotomi and black ibises and green frogs, until they came to the First Cataract of the Nile. And there they found it, the accursed wall of bones and refuse and ruined altar-slabs– for that is Aswan, in the True World– there they found it, strangling the life of the River. And the surface of the lake behind was oily, and the waters within were sluggish, and foul eyeless creatures slid through the brackish depths. All round were established great fetishes of power, set there by the watchful Striders to contain the Wyrm-rot as best they could. The Defenders of Hapi howled in anger to see it, and straightway began to debate how to destroy the hateful wall.

“All save one. The youngest of them– Horus his name, though we called him Ma’i, which is Cat– lowered his head and said:

‘If we do this thing, we will bring an evil. For this is no longer our Nile trapped in this place. We shall loose the waters to sweep away the good earth, sweep away the fish and fowl and fields of the river-banks, sweep away the houses and people, and leave the Wyrm-poisons to lie upon the banks instead of the rich mud that the Inundation has brought every year til now.’

“But the older Seer, He-Who-Scans-Ground, whom we called Ibis, sighed:

‘Little brother, your auspice clouds your eyes, for you only see the dark side of the moon-that-wanes. It is true: the waters will bring suffering, and the Nile shall slaughter like Sekhmet in the beginning-time. But so it must be. For the Nile must run free.’

And Ma’i obeyed those above him in station, joining his packmates in a Rite of Summoning, there on the river-bank, to call a great crocodile-spirit to them, that would have the power to break the wall and let the Nile run free.

“Yet their Rite did not go unnoticed.

“For, crouched at the water’s edge, nine of the Wyrm-foe watched, with cruel smiles on their distorted lips. Little Ma’i saw and howled warning, else the Defenders of Hapi would surely have perished that very night. Straightway the pack turned upon the Black Spiral Dancers, but the fight was bitter and fierce beside the black waters, and none saw the shadow of a vile Serpent that rose from the depths behind them. Save Ma’i, again, whose Sight is ever towards the dark of the moon– he saw; he leapt; he landed on the Bane-serpent’s head. Again and again he pierced it with the curved fang of a fetish knife. As the last Dancer fell to the claws of the packleader, the serpent hissed out black smoke and collapsed beneath the waves.

“Ibis took the arms of his comrades and led them blind from the Wyrm’s smokey breath, but the packleader stayed by the water, claws still buried in the throat of the last dying Dancer. In her fury she ripped through the Dancer’s mind:

‘Why? Why now? What were your vile plans? What were you doing here?’

“As it died it could not resist the power of her anger, and yielded up the truth, just once:

When your elders saw they could not halt the poisons growing here, they turned our own works against us, trapping the spirits of Wyrm behind its own walls. So it summoned us its servants. And had you not come, we surely would have loosed the waters to sweep away the good earth, sweep away the fish and fowl and fields of the river-banks, sweep away the houses and the people, and leave the Wyrm-poisons to lie upon the bank instead of the rich mud that the Inundation has brought every year til now. So have a care, foolish Strider… for others will come, to finish what we failed.’

“Such were the words she brought to her worried packmates, and thus did they report to the elders of the sept, who nodded and said:

‘With the shift of sands we shall find a way to cleanse the River of even this evil, and then the walls may crumble, and the Nile shall run free. But now, O children, you see, and now you know, the sorrow of Aswan.’”

© Ellen Brundige 1994

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