In the Land of the Bow Paul Collins and Keith Taylor
In the Land of the Bow Written by Paul Collins and Keith Taylor Cover image of archer with bow, image from PhotoAlto; Egyptian temple carving (background), image from Photodisc 2007 Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. In the Land of the Bow While every care has been taken to trace and acknowledge copyright, the publishers tender their apologies for any accidental infringement where copyright has proved untraceable. Published by Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd Level 1, 15 19 Claremont Street, South Yarra, Victoria 3141 www.macmillan.com.au Edited by Gordon Coutts/Emma Turner Designed by Kevin Currie Printed in Hong Kong 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN: 978-1-4202-6211-7 Contents Over the Edge...4 Amenemhêt...7 The Young Scribe...15 Insult to the Pharaoh...20 Falsely Accused...26 Amenitré s Plan...35 More Trouble Brews...42 The Scurrilous Artist...50 Caught in the Alley...58 A Thoroughly Evil Scheme...67
over the edge Over the Edge It was really dumb of me to go riding along Joan Grifford s Walk, but Mum and Dad had just bought me a fantastic new mountain bike, which was equipped with a progressively rated suspension, a dual mode link, and the Marzocchi Z1 Bomber suspension fork. It had everything, but I say it had everything because I don t have the bike any longer it went sailing over the cliff with me. It was already spitting when I ventured outside, but I wouldn t listen to Mum s warning: It s going to thunder, Christopher, so be sensible and wait a little while, OK? As I said, I didn t listen, but went racing off regardless, climbing onto the bike and careening up to the old deserted lighthouse. The grass was slippery and the winding path is dangerous even at the best of times, but I had a new bike and I wanted to see exactly what that baby was capable of. Anyway, I was tearing along like a crazy person, and then a thin line of lightning forked out and sliced a tree completely in half. The tree came thundering down in front of me. I was going too fast, and the brakes either failed or the tyres couldn t grip the slippery grass either way, I crashed sideways and narrowly missed the tree, for which, at the time, I was incredibly grateful. Then I slid along on the seat of my pants, thinking stupidly, Mum s going to kill me for
In the land of the bow wrecking these pants. And then I went over the cliff. Let me tell you what goes through your mind when you re plummeting down a cliff at a zillion kilometres per hour: I thought of my new bike wrecked on the rocks, I pictured my broken body on the beach, and I wondered what Mum and Dad would say when they heard I d done such a stupid, stupid thing. Down, down, down I fell, feeling as though the ground was rising up to swallow me forever. SMACK! Amenemhêt Suddenly, I woke up, and I immediately gagged at the rancid stench. I bolted upright and when I saw and smelled where I was and what I was sitting on, I opened my mouth to scream it definitely wasn t a hospital bed!
In the land of the bow I was on a straw pallet, like you see in those Roman or Conan the Barbarian movies, and it smelled something terrible. Confused, I looked down at myself and realized I was dressed in really ugly, uncomfortable, scratchy clothing. My heart was pounding like a metal press thudthudthudthudthud. Dozens of thoughts and images ran through my mind. People always said the sailors who died around here haunted the lighthouse maybe their evil spirits had taken me away! Then again, that was really dumb, because I didn t believe in ghosts at all. My head was throbbing, so I touched it gingerly, then stared in shock and amazement at my hand there was congealed blood all over it. And my curly, bushy hair it had somehow completely disappeared! The room started spinning and I sat back down again, but the next thing I knew a woman came rushing into the room with a bowl of water. She was screaming in a language that wasn t English, yet for some reason I could understand every single thing she said. amenemhêt Neper, quickly! Call for the physician to come at once Amenemhêt s awake! Amenemhêt? The room was spinning faster and faster, uncontrollably, until I felt myself dropping to the floor and falling into oblivion. When I awakened next, I decided to take things rather more carefully, so I just kept my eyes shut and concentrated on figuring this whole thing out. One moment I was about to die, and the next moment I was in some primitive place, with people speaking a foreign language and referring to me by someone else s name, so either I was dreaming or I was having the worst nightmare any kid had ever had. Strange new thoughts suddenly appeared in my head the Pharaoh Akheperkare had died and his son, Prince Tuthmes, was now king, and the savage tribes further up the river had rebelled as soon as they heard about it but then they always did that, hoping the new king wouldn t be strong enough to stop their uprising. And of course, the king always showed just how completely and utterly wrong they were. Say what? Maybe I d been studying ancient