The Hidden Oasis [antikvár]

2153 bc - Egypt, the western desert They had brought a butcher with them out into the far wastes of deshret, and it was a cattle-slaughtering knife rather than a ceremonial one that he used to cut their throats. A savage implement of knapped yellow flint, razor-sharp and as long as a forearm, the butcher went from priest to priest expertly pressing its blade into the soft angle between neck and collarbone. Eyes glazed from the brew of shepen and shedeh they had drunk to dull the pain, their shaved heads glistening with droplets of sacred water, each man offered prayers to Ra-Atum, imploring Him to bring them safely through the Hall of Two Truths into the Blessed Fields of laru. Whereupon the butcher tilted their heads backwards towards the dawn sky and, with a single, firm sweep, slashed their necks from ear to ear. 'May he walk in the beautiful ways, may he cross the heavenly firmament!' the remaining priests chanted. 'May he eat beside Osiris every day!' Blood spattering across his arms and torso, the butcher 15