Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

Yet the woman paid no heed to what he said. Perhaps she hadn't even heard him — because she was entirely focused on Zaya with an absolute mania. She grew furious with her silence and screamed at her, “Zaya… Zaya! Aren't you Zaya? What's wrong — why don't you speak? Speak, you treacherous servant! Tell me what you did with my son! Woman, where is my son!”

Zaya said nothing, her eyes never leaving the outraged woman. But the commotion had paralyzed her; she began to shudder as her fear tore her apart, her face like that of the dead. Djedef took her by her cold hand and sat her down on the closest seat, then turned to the woman. “How did you summon the nerve to speak this way to my mother, Madam,” he demanded, “after I've taken you into my house, and saved your life?”

The woman was gasping like someone about to die. What the commander who had rescued her said greatly affected her. She wanted to speak, but — besieged by emotion — she could do no more than point to his mother as if to say, “Ask her.”

The young man bent down toward Zaya with compassion and asked her softly, “Mama… do you know this woman?”

Zaya still said nothing. The woman was unable to sustain her silence as she said, her rage returning, “Ask her, ‘Do you know Ruddjedet, wife of Ra?’ Ask her, ‘Do you remember the woman that fled with her from tyranny, twenty years ago, carrying her little child?’ Speak to me, O Zaya! Tell him how you crept away under the cover of darkness, how you kidnapped my nursing son. Tell him how you abandoned me in the unknown desert, a despairing soul, facing nothing but hardship and with nothing to avail against it. That is, until the beasts found me and took me prisoner, subjecting me to torture and the humiliation of captivity for twenty long years. Speak, O Zaya…. Tell me, what did you do with my child? Speak!”

More and more confused, Djedef whispered in his mother's ear in torment, “Mother… allow me, who has caused you this agony, I who brought this woman that grief has deprived of her reason… allow me, Mama… I will throw her out.”

But she gripped his hand to prevent him from acting, and he asked her pleadingly, “Why don't you speak, Mama?”

Zaya groaned painfully, and then spoke for the first time since the stupefaction had overwhelmed her, “There's no use… my life is finished.”

The youth called out, his voice roaring like a lion, “Mother, don't say this. You have me, O Mother!”

She sighed from her ordeal. “Oh, dear Djedef, by God, I committed no evil deed, nor used evil means, but Fate has determined what was beyond a person's power to prevent. O Lord! How can my life be destroyed in a single stroke?”

The youth was nearly insane with pain. “Mama!” he cried. “Do not forget that I am at your side, defending you from all harm. What is hurting you? What causes you such grief? Whatever your past enfolds of good or of ill, it's all the same to me. There's nothing important for me to know except that you're my mother, and I'm your son that protects you — be you oppressor or oppressed, malicious or benign. I beg you not to weep when I'm beside you.”

“It's impossible for you to help me!”

“Sheer nonsense, Mama! What calamity is this?”

“You will not be able to help me, dear Djedef. My God! How I built upon hopes, but I set them on the edge of a crumbling cliff! How they were almost steady and upright, then they crashed down to the lowest ground, leaving my heart a ruin in which the ravens are screeching!”

At this, the young man's emotions grew even stronger, and he turned again toward the woman — but she did not relent. Instead, she went on pressing Zaya, “Tell me, where is my son? Where is my son?”

Zaya remained speechless for a little while, then she stood up nervously and shouted at the woman, “Do you think that I betrayed you, O Ruddjedet? No — I've never betrayed anyone. I stayed awake over you on that fateful night, but the Bedouin attacked us, and I had no choice but to flee. I took pity on your baby from their evil, and carried him in my arms, racing across the desert like a madwoman. I had to run away, seeing the nature of the threat, while your falling into their hands was decreed by Fate. Afterward, I took care of your son, and devoted my life to him. My love was good for him, for he grew up to be a man honored by the world. There he is then, standing right in front of you. Have you ever seen a mortal like him before?”

Ruddjedet turned toward her son. She wanted to speak, but her tongue would not obey.