Moses by Howard Fast Page B

never lured him to the tower or urged him there. When he came by himself they welcomed him gladly, and when a week or ten days went by without his coming, they didn’t reproach him. Amon-Teph remained his teacher, and step by step there was unfolded for him the story of Aton.
    He learned how for untold generations the lord and creator of all things had looked with compassion and pity upon the Land of Egypt—for while Aton, the sun, was the father and maker of all, he had chosen the Land of Egypt for his special blessing, and had given to Egyptians the sacred knowledge of truth and justice. Yet, in spite of this, the Egyptians turned their faces from him and worshipped many strange and cold gods, turning more and more to death and the shadow-world of death. So little did they comprehend Aton that they built mountains of stone that lesser gods might mount to the level of Aton—never knowing that to approach Aton would be to invite destruction, even as he who looks at Aton too long will find that the god has taken his sight away for ever.
    For this Aton pitied them and often discussed their folly and wickness with his son, who dwelt within his bosom. The name of the sacred son of Aton was Shay, which meant destiny , or the ultimate realization of all things. Finally, Aton decided that he must send his holy son to mankind, to redeem them and to make them conscious of their ultimate destiny; and even though it meant leaving the everlasting beauty of his father, Shay agreed. Whereupon, Shay descended to earth and entered the body of the most godlike man he could find—Amen-Hotep, the ruler over Egypt. This occurred in the sixth year of the reign of this holy king; and when it happened, he knew that it had happened and he changed his name to Akh-en-Aton, declaring by this name that he was consecrated to Aton and that he would war against all gods other than the one true god.
    Yet in the end the gods of darkness and hate returned to the Land of Egypt. Akh-en-Aton died, and his son was a weakling and without the spirit of Shay within him. All who were evil and rapacious and hungry for power turned against Aton and, led by the dark plotter, the god Osiris, they triumphed; and those who served Aton died by the thousands. That was less than a century ago, yet today the faith of Aton was kept alive only by a handful and only at the risk of their own lives.
    â€œSo you see, Moses,” Amon-Teph said to him, “not all priests are as alike inside as they are outside, even as not all princes are cut out of the same cloth. This palace swarms with priests who came to power when they murdered the old priesthood of Aton; and because they could destroy whom they liked by charging them with the heresy of Aton, they have ever spread and increased their power. So long as the God Ramses rules, they will be held in some check, for he has an iron hand and jealousy of his own power. But god help us all if a weakling comes after him! Then the priests will pluck Egypt clean as a bone.”

[8]
    IN THE MIDDLE of his fourteenth year, six months past his thirteenth birthday, Moses left the war-court where the children were trained, never to return; for it was the end of his training in arms and the end of his formal education and schooling as well. From this time on he was to be considered a man with many of the rights of a man and a prince of the Great House.
    He would now have the right to purchase and own slaves—men and women—for his first princely legacy of gold would come to him from Ramses. He would have the right to ask for a woman in marriage, provided that a marriage was not arranged by his mother or by the God-King. He would have the right to his own quarters, if he desired to leave his mother’s apartment. He would have the right to come and go as he pleased, to hunt in the desert or in the marshes of the Delta, to bear arms, and even—provided Ramses granted his permission—to go out with one of the