"We seldom receive visitors so early in the day," Tabes said with a yawn. She reached out with a languid hand and patted Meren's thigh. "But for so handsome a visitor, I would rise before dawn."
"My thanks," Meren said.
"Oh," said another, who had great painted eyes. "I would rise in the middle of the night." She sat up on her cushion and smiled at him while plucking a lotus from a bowl and handing it to him.
The third woman, small and with quick, darting eyes, touched his ankle with her toe. Meren moved out of reach.
"Good women, I'm here only for conversation." He watched surprise give way to disbelief among the three, so he hurried on. "I understand Lord Nakht was here with several friends the night of the feast at Baht. Tabes, he was with you?"
Silence. The small woman got up and left through the back door.
"Was he here?" Meren asked.
"A tavern woman with a loose tongue soon finds herself cast out of her village," Tabes replied.
Meren leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. "You may speak to me. I'm Lord Nakht's brother."
"But he only has one broth-Gods!"
"Shhh."
"Tabes, this is Lord M-"
Tabes jerked the girl's arm. "Be quiet, Aset. Let the great lord conduct his business in peace and with the secrecy he desires."
"You've an intelligent heart, Tabes."
"The lord is kind," Tabes said with a bow from her sitting position. "The lord wishes to know if his brother was with us on the night of the feast. He came late and in a merry mood. He bought several jars of beer for the entire tavern, and we danced for him."
"He was here the whole night?"
Aset began to chatter. "Oh, the whole night, great lord. He went upstairs with Tabes, Sheftu, and me. Ra is quite generous. He gave me a shift of fine Delta linen, and he gave Tabes a bottle of perfume from Byblos. He kept us busy far into the night. Ra is so funny. He even makes jests while we're-"
"Aset!" Tabes quelled her friend with a severe look. "Lord, we all have great affection for your brother."
"He was here until morning?"
The two women glanced at each other, then at him.
"I woke first," Tabes said. "Around dawn, I think, and he was already gone."
"With Sheftu," Aset chimed in.
"Who is Sheftu?"
"Our other friend," Tabes said. "She's the one who just left, lord."
"Where has she gone? I want to talk to her."
"There's no need for alarm, my lord. Ra and Sheftu probably went to her house. Her grandmother is a wise woman known for her preparations of herbs to enhance pleasure. Sheftu often provides them to those who can pay, and Ra always has plenty of grain or other goods."
Meren's heart battered in his chest like a war drum. He drew closer to Tabes and said, "Herbs, preparations. You mean potions?"
"Aye, lord."
"Flowers, seeds?" Meren asked. "Berries?"
Tabes looked at him curiously. "Yes, lord."
Closing his eyes against pain, Meren spoke again. "I want to talk to this Sheftu who deals in herbs and potions."
Chapter 15
Meren kept his eyes closed as Tabes rose and disappeared into the back of the tavern. He opened them when she returned, leading Sheftu, who hung back and had to be pulled along. Recognizing her fear, Meren questioned the girl gently, assuring her that she wasn't in danger.
"Yes, lord. Ra woke me while it was still dark. He was drunk, but sober enough to want one of grandmother's preparations. We went to my house, which isn't far away."
"You gave him what he asked for?"
"Yes, lord, and then we went to sleep again."
"Both of you?"
Sheftu hesitated. "I fell asleep first, but I'm sure Ra did too."
"And he left the next morning?"
The girl nodded.
"When?"
"I know not, lord."
"Why?" Meren asked quickly.
"He was gone when I woke," Sheftu said.
"So he left you between the time you fell asleep and the next morning when you woke. Would anyone else have seen him go?"
"There's no one else except Grandmother, and she doesn't see or hear very well."
"When did you wake, Sheftu?"
"The sun was up, lord. We drank more than usual, and I had a terrible ache of the head."
"Then my brother left you before sunrise."
"I suppose so, lord."
"And my brother's friends?"
Tabes said, "Two live not far upriver. They stayed the night in the tavern and left that morning. The third? He's still here. He sampled Sheftu's preparations that night and has been using them ever since." She pointed to the man who still snored on his pallet across the room.
Meren got up and went over to the prone figure. Turning him over, Meren straightened, put his fists on his hips, and shook his head. He didn't want to deal with this fool now.
"Antefoker, Antefoker, wake up."
The man smiled in his sleep until Meren kicked him. Then he snorted himself awake and looked up at Meren with a slack-lipped leer.
" 'SMeren. How're you? Howas th' feast last night?"
"You seem to have lost a day, Antefoker. You'd better go home."
"Lost a day? What day?" Antefoker yawned, smacked his lips, and began to snore again.
Meren threw up his hands and went back to Tabes and her friends. Feigning a casualness he didn't feel, he said, "Sheftu, I'm curious about your grandmother's preparations, especially the ones my brother might have obtained. You will take me there at once." To Tabes and Aset he said, "You've been helpful. I'll have my steward send the three of you a length of cloth. However, I expect your mouths to remain closed about my visit. If I hear differently, I will be displeased."
He and Reia followed Sheftu out of the tavern after fending off the entreaties of its keeper. The woman lived down the street and off an alley formed by the walls of two-story houses. At the end of the narrow lane, Sheftu's house clung to a much larger structure. Its walls were cracked, and the roof sagged as if it was about to fall in. The grandmother was asleep in the front room on a pallet. As he passed her, Meren paused and clapped his hands several times, causing Sheftu to start. The old woman slept on.
The young woman led them through the sparsely furnished chamber to the kitchen in the back. From a rickety frame suspended from the ceiling hung bundles of roots, leaves, flowers, and berries. Dozens of pottery jars covered the only table and much of the floor. There was a stone mortar and pestle, along with wooden spoons, strainers, and stirring sticks. Meren gestured to Reia, who began opening jars and inspecting their contents.
Touching a bundle of feathery dried leaves, Meren asked, "What are these?"
"Dill, my lord," said Sheftu. "And those are acacia pods, and these are chervil seeds. This is celery. Grandmother crushes it and applies it to burns."
He picked up a bowl of hard kernels. "Balanos?"
"Aye, lord."
Reia left the kitchen to search the rest of the house while Meren opened a square basket. In it were more dried leaves, rough, with five lobes.
"Those are white byrony, lord. To purge the stomach or to relieve an ache of the head, but it mustn't be used more than once."
"Poisonous?"
"It can be, lord."
Reia reappeared. Meren raised his brows, but the charioteer shook his head.
Meren set down the basket of white byrony. "Now, can you show me the preparation my brother took?"
Sheftu plucked a small bag from a pile on the table and handed it to Meren. It contained a quantity of finely ground powder that smelled slightly of black pepper.
Meren touched his finger to the powder and was about to taste it when Reia lunged and caught his hand.
"No, lord!"
Meren pulled free but wiped his fingers on a cloth taken from a pile on a shelf.
Sheftu was eyeing them, her brow sweating. "You fear that our preparations are harmful?" She found a cup an
d poured water into it. Dumping the powder into the cup, she stirred it with a stick, then gulped it down.
"You see? I'm unharmed."
Sighing, Meren said, "We're looking for tekau."
"Oh, you should have asked, my lord."
Sheftu found a stool, mounted it, and reached up among the herbs. Her hand came out with a bundle of dried, ovate leaves and flowers that might once have been violet. This she handed to Meren. Then she found a round clay pot with a wavy red pattern painted on it. Shriveled brownish-black berries filled the vessel.
"Grandmother says the stems can be used to treat bad breathing, catarrh, and aching bones."
Meren took the pot from Sheftu. His hands had grown cold, and he felt as if he were in a waking dream.
"Demons and fiends," he muttered. Reia took the pot from him, and he collected the leaves as well. "Sheftu, I must take these."
The woman picked up a tall jar and hugged it to her breast as if it would lend her protection. "Have I done something wrong, lord?"
Meren looked around the dark, cramped little kitchen, at the sparse quantity of grain for bread and wood for fires. A few shriveled onions rested in a bowl.
"Did you give my brother some of these berries or leaves?" he asked.
"No, lord. Your brother was quite healthy except for sickness from drinking."
"You know this plant can be dangerous."
"Of course, but everyone knows better than to put more than a little in a potion. Who would be so foolish as to-" Sheftu wet her lips. "Oh, by all the gods, lord. I've done nothing!"
The woman crumpled to the floor at Meren's feet and babbled protestations of innocence.
Meren backed away. "Be calm. Sheftu, listen to me. Be calm. I have no reason to think ill of you. At the moment. But I must ask you if any tekau is missing."
Sheftu straightened. Using the table for leverage, she stood and looked at the herbs Reia was holding. Biting her lower lip, she shook her head.
"I don't know, lord. We haven't used it for a while, not during the whole Drought season."
"Very well," Meren said. "I will send my steward with payment for the herb. You will remain in the village, Sheftu."
"Of course, lord. Where would I go?"
Meren left Sheftu's house scowling and muttering to himself, with Reia striding behind him. The charioteer knew better than to ask questions, and Meren was left to deal with his agitation without interference.
At first he'd been pleased to know that Ra had been indulging in his usual excesses. But Sheftu had ruined his pleasure. Ra could have left the girl in her beer stupor, taken some of the herb, and stolen back to the estate to poison Sennefer's pomegranate wine. He then could have returned to meet his friends at Green Palm. There he could have feigned sickness so that they would offer to bring him home. When questioned, his friends had said they met Ra at the riverbank the morning after the feast. They had assumed he'd come from Sheftu's house. He might have, but if Meren couldn't find someone who saw him there..
In a nasty mood, Meren reached the skiff that had brought them to Green Palm. He got into the boat and snapped at Reia.
"Hurry. I've done an excellent job of implicating my brother in murder, and now I'm going home to threaten a woman with the whip and the brand. Sometimes I disgust myself, Reia."
Back at the main house, Meren went directly to the servants' block to the rear of the compound. It was here that the charioteers had been housed, and it was here that he'd ordered Bentanta brought before dawn. She had been waiting for him there in a narrow, dark room with no windows and no lamp. The building consisted of a row of similar rooms meant for storage, and one long common chamber with half a dozen beds. In the common chamber Meren put on a leather and bronze corselet that wrapped around his chest, wrist guards of the same materials, and a belt into which he shoved a dagger. Still distracted by his discoveries in Green Palm, Meren failed to hear Reia when the charioteer addressed him.
"Lord? Lord, are you well?"
Meren lifted his gaze from the floor to find Reia holding out a charioteer's whip.
"You asked for this, lord."
"Oh, yes. Where are the others?"
"Outside waiting, lord."
"Yes, yes." He cleared his throat. "You've given them their orders? Good." He looked down at the whip to find that his hand was trying to strangle it. He loosened his grip. "Yes, well, it's time, is it not? Come."
Outside waited the four tallest and brawniest of his men. With legs like palm trunks and chests as wide as pyramid blocks, they made even Meren feel slight. He walked down the row of doors to the last one and signaled to Reia. The charioteer pulled back the latch silently, then took a step back and kicked the door open with a crash.
Sunlight pierced the dark void within. Reia took a lamp from one of the men and strode inside. Next Meren motioned for the remaining charioteers to enter. They marched in with spears, nearly filling the room. Only then did Meren follow, stalking in slowly, tapping the coiled whip against his leg. He had drained himself of compassion, separating his ka from all softness, forcing himself to meet this woman as a stranger and an enemy. It was the only way he could carry out this task.
Bentanta stood inside against the back wall, her arms at her sides. He usually preferred not to notice her appearance, as it further disturbed his comfortable, removed perspective of her. But she wasn't in the usual elaborate dress of her station, and he was left with nothing to regard except her unadorned appearance. Without heavy paint on them, her eyes still glinted with that annoying look of calm amusement. They were large and tilted up at the outer corners, adding to the impression of cool humor. Her long, heavy hair was loose except for a thick lock at her temple. Unlike many women he'd questioned, she didn't catch her full lower lip between her teeth to attract attention to her mouth. She simply faced him with the dignity of a Great Royal Wife.
Acknowledging a salute from his charioteers, Meren took a position opposite Bentanta, directed a frigid stare at her, and almost felt his jaw unhinge. Bentanta's expression had changed as his men crowded into the small room. Now she was glaring at him as if he were a slave who had disturbed her in a nap beside the reflection pool.
"I've had enough of this bullying, Meren."
Recovering from his surprise, he asked, "Are you ready to tell me the truth?"
"I've told you the truth."
All at once his shoulder sagged, and he let out a long breath. Touching the bridge of his nose, Meren thought for a moment.
"Oh, Bentanta," he said gently. "Forgive me."
Bentanta shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. "For what?"
"I am so, so very sorry." He lowered his gaze to the whip, then wearily looked at Reia. "I must leave this to you."
"I will be careful, lord."
"I know you will, but it's difficult."
"What is difficult?" Bentanta demanded.
Reia took the whip from Meren. "It would be best if you went to your chamber, my lord."
"You're right."
"Wait a moment," Bentanta said.
Meren hung his head. "I must leave, Bentanta. I regret this. I truly do."
"I'll be careful, lord," said Reia.
"Very well. I've decided you may use the fire."
"What fire?" Bentanta asked.
Meren glanced back at her. "Fear not. I'll send my physician at once. He's excellent at treating burns. There might not be scars at all."
"You're leaving!"
"You were right," he said. "I can't bring myself to question you by force. You've beaten me."
Meren turned his back on Bentanta and shouldered past the wall of charioteers. He slowed his steps as he crossed the threshold. The door closed, and he was left in the sunlight, sweating and shivering. He forced himself to walk to the shade of an acacia, where he whirled around and glowered at the door to Bentanta's cell. Long, long moments passed. He jumped as a whiplash cracked through the air. He heard a cry, a woman's cry, but it was one of fury. Then there
was a slap.
"Meren! Meren, you come back here, damn you. Ser-pent's spawn! Demon's whelp! Meren? May the gods curse you if you aren't out there."
He counted to twenty before entering the cell once more. Bentanta was still standing against the wall. Her long obsidian hair hung wildly about her shoulders, and she was breathing heavily. The skirt of her shift had a slice in it from hip to thigh. Reia was beside her, gawking at her, his hand pressed against a red cheek. The whip lay discarded on the floor. Retrieving the whip, Meren glanced at Reia. The charioteer gave him an embarrassed glance, saluted, and left, herding his men before him.
Standing in a pool of lamplight, Bentanta raked him with her gaze. She gripped her upper arms, and Meren realized that if she didn't, her hands would tremble. Walking away from him, she suddenly whirled around and spat her words at him.
"Spawn of a scorpion, you were going to let them torture me."
He wasn't about to admit the truth. "I must find out who killed Sennefer and Anhai. I'm sworn to uphold Maat, the harmony and balance of the Two Lands."
"And you're officious as well. Gods, why have I tried to spare you? You don't deserve it."
"Spare me? Spare me how, Bentanta? No more quibbling, no more maneuvers. Tell me what happened with Anhai. Tell me everything, at once."
Abruptly she gave a bitter laugh. Setting her back against the wall, she lowered herself to a sitting position and drew the lamp to her. "Sit down, Meren. This will take a while, and it will be-hard."
He sat down so that the lamp was between them. She glanced around the room at the blank walls.
"No windows, only one door, an isolated building. I suppose I should thank you for providing secrecy."
"Get on with it," he said.
Bentanta was wearing a thick lock of her hair strung with gold ring beads. She reached up to it with both hands, lifted the bright strand, and began to pull something that had been inserted within the encircling beads-a tightly rolled paper. This she uncurled and smoothed, holding it at both ends. The papyrus had been folded and refolded so that there were tears along the fold lines. Its edges were ragged, but the script that covered the rectangle was dark and readable. Meren had been expecting to see something like it. Bentanta gave him the papyrus.
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