Serquet, the high priest of the temple of the vulture goddess Nekhbet, showed no surprise as the guards of King Min of the upper river Kingdom of Nekhen filed into and along the walls of the temple throne room, a chamber that could be violated by none but the temple's priests during times of ritual. Serquet had already become aware that there would be a ritual. He had been elaborately prepared for the ceremony earlier in the day. As soon as he had seen the approach of the king and his retinue, Serquet summoned the priest of the spear and the priest of the seed to his side from the stone balcony off the ceremonial throne room that overlooked the city.
Out beyond the approaching soldiers and king of Nekhen, beyond the walls of the city of Nekhenian, out on the dusty plain beyond the narrow strip of fertile fields between the mighty river and the desert, Serquet could see the legions of the Assyrian army under the feared monster general, Adamu. And he could hear the beating of their drums as well. The drums had beaten through the nightâthe death knell of the Kingdom of Nekhen as it once had been. Serquet was a realist. He knew that bestowing of the victory blessing would have little meaning against the legions of the Assyrian monster general, Adamu.
Serquet also knew that King Min no longer could avoid battle; indeed, he should have engaged the enemy long before they arrived on the plain outside the city's gates. King Min's decision to engage in battle meant that he would have to come here for the victory blessing.
The two priests, the one of the spear and the one of the seed, came to his side as Serquet stood at the top of the steps to the vulture throneâa magnificent structure in marble, with its series of foot and hand holds rising up on the wings at each side of the high priest's throne. Serquet held his arms straight out from his body, spread his legs, and planted his bare feet in the foot indentations in front of the throne wings that pointed outward, toward the secular world. The two priests untied the vermillion sash from the waist of the gleaming white robe and pulled it off the magnificent, bronzed, and youthful, pampered, soft-skinned body of the young high priest.
Serquet's body was one of perfection, muscled but not overly muscularâlithe and willowy. It was a young man's body as, indeed, Serquet had barely reached his majority. The hair of his head was black and curly, reaching down to his shoulders. He otherwise, however, was hairless, except for a close-cropped, curly V below his belly pointing down to a thickish, but not overlong, shaft and two pert balls. His robe now stripped, he was clothed only in gold jewelryâa thick yoke of gold on his shoulders; gold bands snaking up his upper arms; gold wristbands, with narrow golden roping down to twist around his middle fingers; and gold bands snaking around his calves, with golden roping down to twist around his middle toes. A ring of gold also surrounded his head, sitting low on his forehead. The root of his cock was set in a gold ring from which gold netting descended to encase his balls.
He was clothed for the ceremony of the victory blessing, having realized in the early morning light, at the sound of distant drums, that the dreaded Assyrian general, Adamu, and his army had arrived outside the gates of the city. The ritual of cleansing, massaging, and oiling his lithe body had lasted into the afternoon.
The king's guard entered the chamber on the half run and poured around the sides of the room. The men were naked except for their gold breastplates, sandals laced up to their knees, gold bicep bands, and helmets with gold flaps descending to protect the bridges of their noses. Each carried a lance, pointed at the ceiling of the chamber. All were magnificently built, as required to be in the king's guard. All also were magnificently equipped in the shafts and balls of men. The two captains of the guard were more magnificently endowed than the others. Most were at least half hard in anticipation of the ritual to come.
Striding into the temple hall in their wake was a tall, muscular man, who was an older, coarser, hairier version of Serquet himself. Adornedâclothed or dressed would not be an accurate descriptionâmuch like the soldiers of his personal guardâKing Min directly approached the throne, mounting the steps and standing, feet in the foot indentions directly in front of and facing the throneâtoward the sacred aspect of the kingdom. As King Min presented himself, almost pressing into his high priest, Serquet stepped back, seated himself in the throne, and raised and spread his legs, placing his feet in the foot indentions at the edge of the wings on either side of the throne. King Min leaned over him and took the hand holds in the marble beside and above the high priest's head.
Both symbolically and physically, the sacred aspect of the kingdom, in the form of the high priest, was open, legs raised and spread, pelvis raised, to the mastering of the secular aspect of the kingdom in this time of the need for physical force.
"We must do battle. I have come for the victory blessing," was all the towering, muscular man said, looking down into Serquet's eyes.
"I know," Serquet said. "Begin," he then said, turning, first, to the priest of the spear on his right and then to the priest of the seed on his left. He raised his arms behind his head and grasped the hand holds in the marble there above and closer to his head than the holds King Min was grasping. The marble seat of the throne was in a curve and raised and rolled his pelvis up toward the front of the throne. The leaning angle King Min was naturally placed to thrust his pelvis down to the lap of the high priest, so that the cocks of the two lay on top of each other.
At the "Begin" signal Serquet had given, the two priests at the side reached a hand each over between the high priest and the king, grasped their cocks together and frotted them, stroking them together, causing them both to harden.
All along the side walls, the soldier guards were taking their own cocks in their hands and stroking them to erections. The guards and the two side priests were chanting. The high priest and the king were panting hard.
"Now," the high priest commanded, looking at the priest of the spear, who produced an enamel-covered box from which he extracted a thin gold rod the length on a man's index finger. The priest of the seed held the now-erect cock of King Min cupped in his hand while the priest of the spear slowly inserted one end of the gold rod into the king's urethra canal, burying half the length of the rod in the king's cock. The priest of the seed then brought the high priest's cock bulb in place and slowly, as Serquet moaned, tensed, and then relaxed, while the priest of the spear caused the exposed end of the gold rod to pierce the high priest's urethra canal, and brought the two bulbs together, making them kiss. The priest of the seed pulled King Min's foreskin over the high priest's bulb and held the two cocks docked and cupped in his hand. The priest of the spear joined the cupping and slight stroking of the two cocks, which were joined together by the piercing gold rod.