Free Khu: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by Jocelyn Murray

date into his mouth, leaned forward, and stretched out his arm over the water. The spiked bluish petals of the lotus blossoms had not yet closed for the night, and their fragrance was intoxicating. Sankhkare tried to reach one of these delicate beauties when he slipped and disappeared beneath the dark water without a sound.
    A bolt of anguish shot through Khu in that instant.
    Khu was standing about twelve paces away from the pond. He had been clapping his hands in time to the rhythm of a tune along with a large group of children when he flinched suddenly, forcing him to turn and look for the little boy he had just seen wandering toward the pond moments before. He knew something was terribly wrong. His heart was beating like the wings of a scattering of heron who had been startled while wading through the river marshes.
    Sankhkare was gone.
    A rippling in the water’s surface was all that remained after the pond swallowed him up without so much as a splash. But Khu knew he was in trouble. He felt the child’s distress as strongly as though it had been he who had been engulfed by the turbid water.
     
     
    “Sankhkare!” Neferu cried out , scanning the area about her.
    Her son had simply vanished. He had been sitting on the ground nearby a moment ago, playing with a wooden toy cat, and the clay pieces of a stone board game. Neferu saw the circular playing pieces strewn haphazardly about, while the toy cat lay abandoned on its side. But the little boy was nowhere in sight.
    Neferu thrust her cup of wine into the hand of a servant, and got up to leave the group of women with whom she had been chatting. She searched wide-eyed for the little boy who meant the world to her.
    “Where is Sankhkare?” she asked in a panicked pitch of the nursemaid who was looking bewildered herself. “WHERE IS HE?” she yelled as she grasped the nurse by the shoulders and shook her hard.
    “I… I -I don’t know, my lady,” the woman stuttered, her eyes filled with fear. “He was just here.”
    Khu ran over to the pond, catching Neferu’s eye. She stopped to stare at him in confusion as he jumped into the water without hesitation.
    “Khu!” someone yelled from the crowd after he leaped in to the water.
    The musicians stopped playing their instruments, and people everywhere turned to see what was happening.
    Khu ducked under the pond’s surface and grabbed Sankhkare by an arm, pulling him up out of its depths. By now everyone had stopped dancing to gather round the pond and watch as Khu lifted the small boy out of the water, and lay him down on the dry ground next to the grasses.
    Sankhkare was not breathing.
    The little boy’s face was ashen as he lay unconscious on his back, eliciting a loud gasp from the crowd whose eyes were now riveted to the scene. And climbing rapidly out of the water, Khu turned the boy on his side and struck him firmly on the back. Then he shoved his finger in the boy’s mouth and pulled out the partially eaten date that had gotten lodged in Sankhkare’s throat when he fell into the pond.
    “Sankhkare!” Neferu ran to her son, crouching down on the ground beside him, her eyes wide with the panic that drove her to the edge of madness as the realization of what had just happened dawned on her with a jarring impact.
    The little prince began to cough, gasping as he gulped for air. Then he cried inconsolably as the shock of the accident wore off, and the seriousness of the events struck him with dread.
    “Sankhkare… Sankhkare…” Neferu whispered as she held her son closely, rocking him back and forth to sooth the frightened child and calm her own frayed nerves. “It is alright now, my child… my sweet child,” she cooed lovingly to her boy.
    “He will be fine,” Khu said in a low voice.
    Neferu looked up suddenly as though she had forgotten Khu was there. She said nothing at first, but stared at him with wide eyes filled with emotion. “Thank you,” she mouthed to Khu as hot tears streamed down her