Moses by Howard Fast

so fair and lovely as the Queen Nefertiti. Does her name frighten you too? And what of the god who shared her throne, the King Akh-en-Aton?”
    â€œCursed be his name,” Moses whispered.
    â€œAh boy, boy,” the old man sighed, placing a hand on the prince’s shoulder and touching his cheek lightly with the other. “So quick to curse. And if they taught you to curse our mother, the River Nile, you would do that too—or the sweet morning wind? Curse it? No—no, Moses,” he said gently, softly, winningly, “we will come closer than curses, and we will learn something, you and I. You’re not too young, and I’m not too old. Do you think it is lightly that I place my life in your hands? Old, I am, and fat and ugly, but still life is sweet and the life of my brothers here—that is also sweet. And what will happen if you go to your godly uncle and tell him that here I spoke the name of Akh-en-Aton?”
    â€œI won’t tell,” Moses pleaded, feeling that this was the most awful moment of his life. “I won’t tell.”
    â€œBut if you should tell?”
    â€œYou will die, Amon-Teph,” the boy stammered, his eyes filling with tears. “But I won’t tell.”
    â€œI think you won’t,” the priest murmured. “Either because I am a fool, or because I am a good judge of men, even when they are young men. Do you think I would tell you evil things, Moses, and lead you in evil paths?”
    Moses shook his head.
    â€œNo, you are very dear to me; and only the cause is worth the risk. Akh-en-Aton was a good and gentle man—and even as we look at the stars, so did he look at the sun and feel its warmth and goodness; and he said to himself—The sun’s name is Aton; and did he not look kindly upon us and give us so generously of his warm blood, then we would all perish and die in the everlasting night. What other god is like him?’”
    â€œAkh-en-Aton wanted to kill the gods—”
    â€œNo, no, boy! What lies they tell you! Do you think that gods die so easily? Believe me, it was with no thought of killing the gods that Akh-en-Aton turned to the sun—but to make the gods what they must be, to bring them together with he-who-created-all, who shines down on us every day. We are all children of Aton, our father, and is it wrong for children to know their father as he truly is? Is it wrong for children to know that their father is good and that he gives them everlastingly of his warm gold? Why must we call him by many names and give him many aspects? He has only one that is meaningful—his great, golden heart.”
    The priest was silent then and he remained silent for a long while, his eyes looking out past the marble balustrade; and as Moses watched him, the boy’s fear went away. Finally, Moses said,
    â€œBut that was a long, long time ago, wasn’t it, AmonTeph?”
    â€œFor you, yes,” the priest nodded. “For me—only yesterday. My own grandfather was a priest of Aton under Akh-en-Aton. So, you see, it was not so long ago. But now it’s late, Moses. Go to your mother.” He took the prince’s hand and kissed it; the other priests turned to Moses and nodded their heads; and Moses, full of a strange, over-whelming gladness, left the platform and walked slowly down the stone stairs.

[7]
    MANHOOD PECKED AT him; he was gaining his height, and the first soft, dark down began to show on his upper lip. His limbs lengthened, and his round muscles became flat and hard. Inside him strange new juices stirred him to restless, aching, longing that was without definition and beyond his understanding, Suddenly, the world was created anew and a hundred things were singular.
    Often enough the children of Ramses swam in the River Nile now. This was frowned on if not wholly forbidden, but they were yearlings who had to test their stride and strength constantly—and bolster their defiance