Moses by Howard Fast Read Free Book Online Page B

blessed Re stands with Osiris cheek to cheek, the lord of death and the god of the sun, together!”
    â€œThe cold and the warm, Moses?”
    â€œPrecisely,” Moses nodded eagerly, “for alone, each would fade into no substance, but together—”
    â€œAh, Moses,” the priest sighed, “don’t argue matters theological with me, for I can only promise you the short end. I see that you were well taught, and I am sure you can recite more paragraphs from the Book of the Dead than I can, the way my memory serves me. As a matter of fact, your answer shows devotion to your studies. He is the god of the sun, is he not? Sun-god, river-god, heavenly-god, flood-god—oh so many of him from so far back. Did it ever occur to you, Moses, to wonder why the ancient folk built those stone mountains at Giza so high?”
    Moses shook his head. The pyramids were high; why they were high had never occurred to him, and who on earth would ever think of asking such a question?
    â€œThey were more simple in the olden times,” the priest smiled. “Each king considered that he would build a platform to set him on a level with the god Re. They were simple, and Re was simple, too. Do you know, Moses, people grow wiser and their gods grow a little wiser too?”
    â€œI don’t understand you, Amon-Teph.”
    â€œNo. But you will begin to—because understanding comes slowly, Moses. You have told me the name of the sun-god, but the name of the sun, this you haven’t spoken at all.”
    â€œThe sun is the sun,” Moses said slowly, half as a question. “It has no name.”
    â€œAnd you are the son of Enekhas-Amon, the daughter of Seti the god, and yet you have a name-perhaps a bit unusual, perhaps only half a name—still, it serves. Is the sun less, Moses?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œEven I, fat old Amon-Teph, have a name, and my pet cat has a name—but the sun? Moses, have you ever heard the word Aton? ”
    â€œI don’t remember,” slowly and half-afraid, he answered. The night was closing in on Moses; and now the moon, the silver disc of Isis, the mother, the sister of life and death, was up over the horizon, gazing full upon him, challenging his justice , searching his soul for what horrible thoughts he might think in the next moment. Looking about him, almost wildly, almost like a trapped animal, he saw that the other priests had forgotten him or were deliberately ignoring him, bent on their own business. They had long brazen rods, with a loop at either end, and through these loops they seemed to be tracing the course of the stars. Sometimes they laid down their rods to make notations on strips of papyrus, and again they put their heads together for whispered consultations.
    â€œMagic,” Moses whispered.
    â€œNonsense, boy!” Amon-Teph snorted. “We have no truck with this new fad of magic here! We are doing our work—and at the moment mine is to open your dark eyes a little.”
    â€œWhy?” Moses asked in half a whimper.
    â€œWhy? You want to know all at once. You will know soon enough. For the time being—I can tell you no more than your mother will permit me to tell you. But rest assured, my child, that you have a vital place in our dreams—and they are not always to remain dreams. Now think no more about it, let the future rest. For you, Prince, there is only tomorrow, but my tomorrows are far, far away. Are you afraid?”
    â€œI don’t want to be.”
    â€œBut when I said Aton , your heart turned over. I am an old man, Moses, and not fit to frighten any child, much less a prince of Egypt. And you—are you enough of a man yet to know a beautiful woman when she passes by, or is beauty still a word?”
    â€œI’m not a child,” Moses answered sullenly.
    â€œAnd perhaps not a man either. But if you saw all the beautiful women in Egypt today, you would never see one