Cleoclucktro was visiting a nearby town when a messenger came to him and his attendants to tell them that Pepaure had gone missing and the Pharaoh wanted each and every one of his children to come in the palace and stay there until Pepaure was found. Immediately, Cleoclucktro spurred his horse and rode to the palace. He wanted to be there when they found Pepaure.
Cleoclucktro waited and waited for Pepaure to be found. When he wasn’t found after eight days, the Pharaoh grudgingly admitted that Pepaure wasn’t going to come back again and let all the people of the palace out again.
Just one day later there was another tragedy. Mentufre was talking to one of his wives when suddenly he started getting sick. His wife, Sesmotris, alerted the king. “He’s retching up blood!” she wept. “Save him!” Sesotep the IV immediately, for he (of course) didn’t want all of his children to die, summoned all the physicians and High Priests and High Priestesses to come save Mentufre. The physicians tried to save him while the priests and priestesses prayed to Amun-Ra, while Sesotep the IV sat vigil next to his son with Mentufre’s mother and wife day after day and night after night in the darkened chamber. Then one day, Sesotep the IV came out. “He’s dead! At this rate, there won’t be a single person left in line for the thrown and I’m getting old!” he cried in anguish.
Cleoclucktro had stared in shock at his father. He knew that his father mourned his sons, but he didn’t know he did that much. After all, he had twenty-three children and sixteen of them could become Pharaoh, though that number had been reduced to 15 children in the last few years. At least his favorite wife, (or his sister) Menohet, hadn’t died from the plague that had killed Mentufre. Meanwhile, in the towns, the parties continued for there was a good chance that Cleoclucktro would become Pharoah.
Two weeks later, after a succesful raid in Syria, Sesotep the IV, the pharoah himself, got sick with the very plague that had killed Mentufre. the IV,Cleoclucktro, the twin who lived, would become Pharaoh.
Story to be continued on page 25
Picture by Annika Salmi