Imhotep (61 page)

“Our holy men do this,” Sabef said, looking
around the dark chamber.  “They enclose themselves in darkness and burn seeds
from a plant we call sikran.  Then the gods come to them and speak through
them.”

He nodded respectfully at the wall niches.  “Very
holy.”

“Do they see the future?” Djoser asked.

“Yes, the future.  They see who will be your
wife, they see how to cure someone, they see why the gods are angry and what to
do about it.  They can see who will be king,” Sabef said.

“Do you have this sikran?” Djoser asked.

Sabef shook his head.  “I am not a shaman.” He
held his bow and smiled at Djoser.  “This tells me my future.  If I shoot true,
I live.” He tossed his head back and laughed.

“Don’t you want to know your future?” Djoser
asked him.

“No!” Sabef said without hesitation. “If I see
something bad, then I will worry.  If I see something good, then I will stop
working and wait for it.  It might not come, then I will worry if I have done
something wrong and the gods are angry with me.  For me, my prince, it is
better to know where my next step will fall.  That is enough.”

Djoser nodded understanding, but he said softly,
“I would like to see beyond that.  I would like to talk with the gods.”
Or
be a god,
he thought.

A journalist for more than 30 years, Jerry Dubs
won numerous awards for reporting and for graphic design. He and his wife are
vagabonds who wander the southeast U.S. Searching for warm weather and
well-kept tennis courts.

He can be contacted at
[email protected]

I
extend a huge thank-you to the hundreds of readers who have posted reviews of
Imhotep. It is humbling and thrilling to read your comments.

This
edition of Imhotep has been thoroughly edited and corrected to eliminate the
grammatical errors or misspellings some reviewers found. And, on re-reading the
novel after a few years, I decided that the harsh and profane language used by
some of the characters was unnecessary. It has been removed. The f-bomb has
been defused.

One
reviewer pointed out that camels were not used in Egypt at the time my story
takes place. He is right. I tried to make everything historically accurate -
names, the size of communities, foods, which gods were in ascent, festivals,
dress, weapons, and so on. I did not check on those darn camels. Mea culpa.

In
response to requests from readers I have decided to extend Imhotep's story.

“The
Buried Pyramid,” which is both a prequel and a sequel to this story, is
available for the Kindle through Amazon. I have included the first two chapters
of it after this note.

“The
Forest of Myrrh” is the third novel in the series. It is also available on
Amazon for the Kindle reader. A fourth, and final, novel about Imhotep,
tentatively called “The Field of Reeds,” is in the planning stages. I hope to
have it completed by the summer of 2015.

-
Jerry Dubs, May 18, 2014