死亡终局14_英语小说

死亡终局14

文章来源：未知文章作者：enread 发布时间：2026-06-30 11:11 字体： [大中小]　进入论坛

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CHAPTER SEVEN

FIRST MONTH OF WINTER 5 TH DAY

Renisenb’s dream had left her wakeful. She slept after it only in snatches

and towards morning she did not sleep at all. She was obsessed by an ob-

scure feeling of impending evil.

She rose early and went out of the house. Her steps led her, as they did

so often, to the Nile. There were fishermen out already and a big barge

rowing with powerful strokes towards Thebes. There were other boats

with sails flapping in the faint puffs of wind.

Something turned over in Renisenb’s heart, the stirring of a desire for

something she could not name. She thought, ‘I feel–I feel–’ But she did not

know what it was that she felt! That is to say, she knew no words to fit the

sensation. She thought, ‘I want–but what do I want?’

Was it Khay she wanted? Khay was dead–he would not come back. She

said to herself, ‘I shall not think of Khay any more. What is the use? It is

over, all that.’

Then she noticed another figure standing looking after the barge that

was making for Thebes–and something about that figure–some emotion it

expressed by its very motionlessness struck Renisenb, even as she recog-

nized Nofret.

Nofret staring out at the Nile. Nofret–alone. Nofret thinking of–what?

With a little shock Renisenb suddenly realized how little they all knew

about Nofret. They had accepted her as an enemy–a stranger–without in-

terest or curiosity in her life or the surroundings from which she had

come.

It must, Renisenb thought suddenly, be sad for Nofret alone here,

without friends, surrounded only by people who disliked her.

Slowly Renisenb went forward until she was standing by Nofret’s side.

Nofret turned her head for a moment then moved it back again and re-

sumed her study of the Nile. Her face was expressionless.

Renisenb said timidly:

‘There are a lot of boats on the River.’

‘Yes.’

Renisenb went on, obeying some obscure impulse towards friendliness:

‘Is it like this, at all, where you come from?’

Nofret laughed, a short, rather bitter laugh.

‘No, indeed. My father is a merchant in Memphis. It is gay and amusing

in Memphis. There is music and singing and dancing. Then my father

travels a good deal. I have been with him to Syria–to Byblos beyond the

Gazelle’s Nose. I have been with him in a big ship on the wide seas.’

She spoke with pride and animation.

Renisenb stood quite still, her mind working slowly, but with growing

interest and understanding.

‘It must be very dull for you here,’ she said slowly.

Nofret laughed impatiently.

‘It is dead here–dead–nothing but ploughing and sowing and reaping

and grazing–and talk of crops–and wranglings about the price of flax.’

Renisenb was still wrestling with unfamiliar thoughts as she watched

Nofret sideways.

And suddenly, as though it was something physical, a great wave of an-

ger and misery and despair seemed to emanate from the girl at her side.

Renisenb thought: ‘She is as young as I am–younger. And she is the con-

cubine of that old man, that fussy, kindly, but rather ridiculous old man,

my father…’

What did she, Renisenb, know about Nofret? Nothing at all. What was it

Hori had said yesterday when she had cried out, ‘She is beautiful and

cruel and bad!’

‘You are a child, Renisenb.’ That was what he had said. Renisenb knew

now what he meant. Those words of hers had meant nothing–you could

not dismiss a human being so easily. What sorrow, what bitterness, what

despair lay behind Nofret’s cruel smile? What had Renisenb, what had any

of them, done to make Nofret welcome?

Renisenb said stumblingly, childishly:

‘You hate us all–I see why–we have not been kind–but now–it is not too

late. Can we not, you and I, Nofret, can we not be sisters to each other?

You are far away from all you know–you are alone–can I not help?’

Her words faltered into silence. Nofret turned slowly.

For a minute or two her face was expressionless–there was even, Renis-

enb thought, a momentary softening in her eyes. In that early morning

stillness, with its strange clarity and peace, it was as though Nofret hesit-

ated–as though Renisenb’s words had touched in her some last core of ir-

resolution.

It was a strange moment, a moment Renisenb was to remember after-

wards…

Then, gradually, Nofret’s expression changed. It became heavily

malevolent, her eyes smouldered. Before the fury of hate and malice in

her glance, Renisenb recoiled a step.

Nofret said in a low, fierce voice:

‘Go! I want nothing from any of you. Stupid fools, that is what you all

are, every one of you…’

She paused a moment, then wheeled round and retraced her steps to-

wards the house, walking with energy.

Renisenb followed her slowly. Curiously enough, Nofret’s words had not

made her angry. They had opened before her eyes a black abyss of hate

and misery–something quite unknown as yet in her own experience, and

in her mind was only a confused, groping thought of how dreadful it must

be to feel like that.