they were all keeping watch through the windows for the first sight of Edfu, a smallish city on the left bank of the Nile.
Freya liked it as soon as they arrived. There were cars, as befitted a modern city, but the roads were also filled with carts drawn by horses, giving the place a friendly air.
They were booked into a small hotel next to the river, with rooms overlooking the water. Here too she had a balcony, but Jackson wasn’t next door. Her neighbours were Amos and Janine—which, she told herself, she should be glad of.
Drifting out onto the balcony, she found Janine looking down at the street.
‘I’m glad you’re close to me,’ Janine said. ‘I really need you.’
‘Is Amos being more difficult than usual?’
‘You’ve seen how he is: he’s really enjoying this. But there’s something else—something I can’t define.’
‘Is he still giving you funny looks?’
‘Yes, but there’s more—a new atmosphere that’s never been there before. He keeps asking me what I think about things. In the past he hardly ever asked my opinion. It’s almost as though he’s lost confidence.’
‘Him?’ Freya echoed sceptically. ‘I haven’t seen that.’
‘No, it only happens when he’s with me. Others see only the Amos who’s always convinced he’s right. But there’s another Amos, and for some reason he’s not so sure of himself. I get glimpses of him, but then he hides away again.’
‘I remember you saying that he’s more vulnerable than anyone suspects.’
‘Hush, keep your voice down. He must never know I said that.’
‘Perhaps it would be good for him to know.’
‘Amos couldn’t cope with the knowledge that anyone thought him vulnerable. Let’s go down and have something to eat.’
Downstairs they found a stall selling books about Edfu in several languages for tourists. Amos snapped up three and plunged into them at the table.
‘It says here,’ he declared, ‘that the Temple to Horus is the most completely preserved temple remaining in Egypt. They must have realised how much it matters.’
He switched to a page containing a photograph of the temple taken from the air.
‘It’s huge,’ Freya breathed. ‘All those sections—the Festival Hall, New Year Chapel, Hall of Offerings, Sanctuary of Horus.’
‘And look at those shapes carved into the wall,’ Janine said. ‘What are they?’
‘The one on the left is a king,’ Amos explained. ‘The one closest to him is Horus, and the one standing behind him is the goddess Hathor—Horus’ woman. The small one is their little son, Ihy. The King is making an offering to them, to show his respect.’
‘Of course,’ Jackson said. ‘His power was immense and his influence spread over centuries. Meeting him is going to be really something.’
‘Yes,’ Amos said. ‘Oh, yes.’
Amos said little for the rest of the meal, but the smile stayed on his face. When Freya suggested an early night to prepare him for the demands of the following day he made no objection.
‘Good idea,’ Jackson said.
‘What about you?’ she ventured to ask.
‘No chance of an early night for any of us. Too much work still to do.’ He laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘Get some sleep. Tomorrow will probably tire you.’
She nodded and patted his hand. They had reached their comfort zone again.
* * *
Next morning everything was forgotten except the excitement that awaited them. As soon as the coach started Amos produced one of the books he’d bought the night before and went carefully through it, noting all the places to see— especially the Hypostyle Hall, where a statue of Horus was to be found.
‘I thought he was a man with a falcon’s head,’ Freya said, looking over Amos’s shoulder at a picture in the book. ‘That just looks like a bird.’
‘That’s how he’s represented in statues,’ Jackson said. ‘Just as a bird—like the model I brought home, except a lot bigger. But in the temple you’ll see etchings of him on the walls, and in those he’s a man with a falcon’s head.’
When they reached the temple they headed for the spot and found what they were looking for.
‘Get a load of that!’ Larry breathed, staring up at the falcon-shaped statue which loomed over them a good twenty feet.
‘I hadn’t expected it to be so big,’ Freya murmured.
‘But of course,’ Amos said. ‘He has to be majestic.’
They moved on to where there were pictures carved into the wall and found the one they had seen in the book, in which Horus was receiving tribute from royalty. As Jackson had said, here he was a man with a falcon’s head. Behind him stood the goddess Hathor, a beautiful woman with a magnificent headdress. Around her neck she wore an elaborate necklace.
‘She was known as the cow goddess,’ Jackson explained. ‘She has a woman’s face, but those two curving horns you can see on her head are a version of cow’s horns. The orb between them represents the world.’
‘She too was great and glorious,’ Amos observed. ‘She embodied motherhood, feminine love and happiness.’
‘And she was his wife?’ Freya said.
‘That’s right,’ Amos said, taking Janine’s hand in his. ‘The most valuable wife and goddess a deity ever had. He gave her that necklace, you know, to show how much he valued her.’
He inclined his head towards Janine. She smiled back, looking a little surprised. Amos’s words might almost be described as sentimental—an unusual departure for him.
Jackson too was looking surprised, and he said, ‘Actually, it’s not that simple. In some legends she was his wife, but in some she was his mother.’
‘I thought Isis was his mother,’ Freya said.
‘It depends whether you’re talking about Horus the Elder or Horus the Younger.’
‘There really were two?’ Freya queried.
‘Father and son. That’s the fascinating thing about the ancient Egyptians. They could believe and understand several versions of a legend at once.’
‘Good for them,’ Amos said. ‘There’s nothing more useful than being able to manipulate the facts—without being too obvious about it, of course.’
‘I don’t dare ask what you mean by that,’ Jackson said, grinning. ‘But I’m sure the markets would be interested.’
Amos
