‘ Now, that wasn’t very friendly, was it?’ Asked Kefu
‘Thief! ’ cried the wild man.
‘What do you mean, thief?’
‘You, you’re a thief, come to steal my boat, but I’ve got no boat, the others stole it two days ago.’
Kefu’s face fell and the wild man who had been watching him through bloody fingers, cackled. ‘Ha! See, you did come for the boat!’
‘Yes, but only to pay you to take us across the river.’
Kefu could see the man didn’t know whether he was telling the truth, so he passed him a jug of water and said, ’Here, clean your face, while you decide whether to believe me or not.’
‘Your too late anyway,’ mumbled the man who had finished wiping his face and was now holding a rag to his nose.
Too late for what?’
‘Catching a ship south, they’ve all gone. If you don’t believe me, climb onto the roof of the hut and see.’
Kefu climbed up and looked across the river, only see what he dreaded. The docks that only an hour ago were filled with ships and heaving with humanity, were deserted. Not even the smallest of boats remained. With a heavy heart he jump down and was handed a platter of fish, ‘Since you appear to be going nowhere, you may as well share my meal.’
Surprised by such kindness from someone who had attacked him moments ago Kefu managed to say, ‘Thank you, I’m Kefu.’
‘Nepha,’ said the man and then he began to eat.
When they had finished eating Kefu explained that a great Aamu army was about to fall on Kemet and that he had wanted to save his family by catching a ship going south.
‘I gathered something was up when the royal court began to flee. But if you can’t go south, why don’t you go north?’ asked Nepha.
‘Because the Aamu are sure to capture the whole of the north.’
‘What if you could get to somewhere else?‘
‘Like, where?’
‘A place called Tyre.’
Kefu heart rose at the mention of Prince Hanno‘s country. ‘What do you know of Tyre?’ he asked.
‘Nothing, only that the ships delivering cedar wood for the palaces and temples, come from there.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘Because one of those ships, The Sea Swift, left to return home three days ago, before all the trouble started.
Kefu’s face fell. ‘That’s no help.’
‘But it might be. You see I happen to know that the captain always uses the right branch of the river and stays over for a few days at a small village, while he visit’s a lady friend.
For a wildfowler, come fisherman, this Nepha seemed to know a lot more than someone in his position should. So Kefu questioned him and found out that the ship had been coming to the port for years. What is more, in all time that it had been coming, Nepha had been supplying the ships cook with fish and fowl, for the captains table. He and the cook had become friends and the cook liked nothing more than a good gossip. After listening to the tale, Kefu was satisfied that Nepha had told the truth, but still didn’t how the information would help. ‘So how does this help?’ he asked.
‘For the last three days the wind has been directly from the north, which means the they wouldn’t have been able to uses their sails and it would have taken them until today to reach the village.’
‘You talk a lot, but you still haven’t told me how this all helps.’
‘It helps, if you have a small boat and you can catch up with them before they leave the village.’ grinned Nepha.
Kefu looked at him in astonishment. ‘You have a boat!’ he exclaimed. ‘but you told me it had been stolen.’
‘And so it was, anyway that was when I thought you were a thief, but I have another, unfortunately it is very small, I could only take one or at the most two small ones.’
It was the break Kefu had been praying for, ‘Could you carry one small one and two tiny ones?’ he cried.
Nepha shrugged his shoulders, ‘Depends, I’d have to see them.’
‘Get your boat ready,’ cried Kefu jumping to his feet and striding off. ‘I’ll be back in two hours … and thank you.’ He called over his shoulder as he plunged back into the reed beds.
Teu was waiting for him when he reached Tura and before she time to ask where he had been, he smiled and told her to get the children, they were going now. She asked if they were finally going south and when he shook head and said they were going north, she cried, ‘But you said the north would be overrun, so why are we going there.’
He took her by the shoulders look into her eyes and said, ‘We are going north my darling to catch a ship that is sailing to Tyre.’
‘Then are we leaving Kemet for good?’
‘Who knows? Maybe we will return one day.’
While Nepha took his family down river, Kefu rode like the wind on the animals back and reached The Sea Swift, within two days. By using Prince Hanno’s name he gained passage on board for all of them including the animal. The captain having travelled extensively in the east, informed him that the beast was called a horse and that most owners gave them names. Kefu decided there and then to call his horse Desert Wind.
Later when Nepha arrived with Teu and the children Kefu tried to get him to come with them, but he refused, saying that he would be safe in his reed bed and beside people needed to eat and he would still make a living whoever ruled Kemet. Unable to change his mind Kefu thanked him, forced him to accept a small bag of gold. Teu and the children hugged him and they all waved from the dockside as he paddled away.
The next morning the anchor stone was raised, the ropes were cast off, the sails raised to catch the warm wind that now blew from the south and they left for Tyre and a new phase of their life.
Behind them to the east, beneath a cloud of dust, the great army of the Aamu federation crossed the border into the lands of the Pharaohs and soon the people of Kemet would bow beneath the yoke of a foreign ruler.
