by Lauren Haney
"I counseled him and Senu both to ignore him, pointing out that he'd soon use his influence to have himself transferred to the capital, where he could walk the corridors of
power. The man who tried to hurt him would merely hurt himself."
Bak gave him a long, speculative look. "You told me he wanted your job. One stepping-stone among many, you said. First you would fall to his ambition, and Woser and Commandant Thuty and the viceroy would fall behind you. He surely couldn't be in two places at once: here in Wawat and in faraway Kemet."
A touch of pink colored Huy's pallor. "His climb to power on the southern frontier was my own personal dread, one I believed unwise to share. The strength of a garrison lies in the solidity of its troops. I wanted no internal warfare among the officers. There was enough bad feeling as it was."
Bak, who also now and again tailored the truth to fit necessity, smiled his understanding. Huy was a good man, he felt, one any good officer would be proud to serve. "Do you have any idea why Senu or Inyotef would hate AmonPsaro? I speak now of the past in addition to the present."
"I don't know." Huy eyed a dragonfly flitting around the islet. "I just don't know."
Bak saw a reluctance in Huy to speak, a truth hidden in his heart that he preferred not to divulge. While he waited for the disclosure he knew the officer would be honorbound to make, he watched the swallows, their hunger satisfied, streak away to the west and the steep face of the escarpment where their nests were hidden. A movement caught his eye, the sound of laughter reached his ear. The stubby prow of a boat nosed its way around the island to the north, a cargo vessel making its ponderous way upstream from they fortress. He shot to his feet to stand atop the boulder, waving his arms to attract attention.
Bak knelt beside Huy, sitting cross-legged in the prow of the cargo ship, sipping from a cup filled with a heady brew of beer sweetened and strengthened with dates. The breeze had died soon after they rounded the long island and the crew had taken up the oars. An aging sailor sang an old river song, beating out the rhythm on a large overturned pottery bowl, setting the tempo for the rowers. The river was smooth and still, a sheet of copper blended with gold, reflecting the evening sky. Birdsong rose from the trees along the water's edge. Traces of smoke drifted from the city, teasing the nostrils, hinting of food and drink. A falcon soared overhead, alone and lordly in his heavenly kingdom.
Other than the sailors and their two unexpected passengers, the vessel was empty and riding high on the water. The cargo of food and materials had been unloaded at the island fortress; the men ferried across to work there would remain overnight. Bak, his spirits restored by a jar of the ordinary beer more suited to his taste than the sweeter brew, had been watching Huy since their rescue. From the older officer's troubled expression, he guessed the time had come to press him further.
"Have you thought yet of any reason why Senu or Inyotef would wish Amon-Psaro dead?"
Huy started, torn from his reverie. "I don't think ... No! I can't help you."
"You've thought of something, sir, something that troubles you. Your expression betrays you."
Huy stared at the bowl, cracked and worn from use. "I call both of them my friends, Lieutenant."
"Did you not in the distant past call Amon-Psaro your friend?" Bak's voice was gentle, but firm. "Did he not once save your life?"
"As you did today." Huy rose to his feet and walked to the rail, where he looked out across the water at the distant city, lying in the shadow of the escarpment, and the massive fortress towering above, its white walls gleaming in the last rays of sunlight. Much of the pallor had gone from his face, but his eyes were deep-sunk, the flesh below them darkened by exhaustion. "Senu's wife is a woman from far to the south. He took her as his own many years ago when first he traveled to Kush. He cares for her above all others, and she cares as much for him. She's given him many children." A smile touched his lips. "How Senu keeps his sanity in so chaotic a household, I'll never understand."
Bak, who had expected some momentous disclosure, was puzzled. "From what I've seen since I came to Wawat, men who take wives from the south aren't uncommon, especially the traders, but some soldiers as well."
"This woman," Huy said in a voice made ponderous by reluctance, "is a member of the royal family of a Kushite king, Amon-Psaro."
Bak stiffened. "No wonder you hesitated to tell me." "Such a position is often precarious and can sometimes be downright dangerous," Huy pointed out, "but I was told by one who should know that she's too far down the line of inheritance to be a threat to the throne. Nor would she feel menaced by Amon-Psaro's arrival here in Iken." "Who was your informant?" Bak asked, barely able to contain his excitement. "Can I speak with him?"
"He was long ago laid to rest in his tomb." Huy must have known the man well, for a sadness clouded his face. "Many years before his death he was an envoy of Akheperenre Tuthmose, our present sovereign's deceased husband. Senu accompanied him upriver more than once to the courts of the various tribal kings."
Bak tamped down his excitement, cautioning himself to jump to no conclusions. Huy was right about a woman of royal blood. Unless she was a daughter or sister or one of more distant parentage who attracted the favor of the king, she would be one among many, a ewe in a herd of ewes to be handed ever to the most tempting bidder. Yet what if Senu had stolen away a royal favorite? Unlikely, but as plausible as any other theory Bak could conceive. He must speak with Senu or the woman as soon as possible.
Vowing to hurry straight from the harbor to Senu's house, he asked, "Have you any ... ?" His voice was lost in a flourish of drumbeats as they neared the quay. "Have you any idea how well Senu knew Amon-Psaro?"
"He's never spoken of him to me or to anyone else as far as I know, but neither do I mention I once befriended a king."
Bak eyed the officer with curiosity. "Most men would be proud of so lofty a comrade."
"Can I call a man my friend when I've not set eyes on him for more than twenty-five years?"
"You've mixed emotions, I see, about meeting him again."
"I'll not draw attention to myself, of that you can be sure." A stubborn pride glowed in Huy's eyes. "If he chooses to recognize me, I'll be delighted. If he doesn't, so be it."
The officer's modesty was a trait to envy, Bak thought, and one seldom developed to so great an extreme. Perhaps, if the occasion arose-and if he could keep Amon-Psaro alive-he might get the opportunity to whisper a word in the king's ear. "Are you prepared now to tell me more about Inyotef?"
"I know less about him." "But ... ",
"I've heard. . ." Huy hesitated, sighed. "I've no way of knowing how true the tale. I was gone then, assigned to far-off lands." He sipped from his bowl, emptying it, and set it on the forecastle. "They say Amon-Psaro was a wild creature when first he went to our capital, a prince of the river and the desert, one who could never be confined within the walls of the palace. Oh, he studied like the royal children and played with them, they say, and he learned the ways of Kemet. But he valued his freedom above all things."
"What was Inyotef's role in the prince's game?" Bak could well imagine the kind of knowledge a young sailor could pass on to an innocent but willing child.
"First, Amon-Psaro took Inyotef's family as his own." Huy's smile turned inward. "A peasant family, they were, much like mine. A mother and father to substitute for his own lofty parents living in faraway Kush. A sibling or two close to him in age, and Inyotef, like an older brother."
Bak noticed a sailor standing close by, poised to take up the mooring rope. He backed out of the way, drawing Huy with him. "And then?"
Huy gave a cynical laugh. "Anion-Psaro grew to manhood. No longer in need of a family, he went out in search of life. From what I was told, Inyotef helped him find it."
Bak, born and raised near the southern capital, had grown up hearing tales of hostage princes and young men of noble birth slipping out of the palace, of wild carousing and ungoverned and licentious behavior. As he grew older, he ha
d learned to sort fact from fiction, but a few of those tales, he knew, had been close to the truth.
"How old was Anion-Psaro when he went back to Kush?"
"Fifteen years? Sixteen? I'm not sure." Huy gripped the frame of the forecastle and stiffened his stance, ready for the jarring bump when the hull nudged the quay. "The very next day I said good-bye to him, I was sent on to the land of the Retenu and from there to the island of Keftiu. I was gone for close on ten years, and when I returned to Kemet, he was gone."
Bak spread his legs wide, waiting for the thud. Inyotef or Senn. Which of the two would want Anion-Psaro dead? Many signs pointed toward the pilot, especially the way Huy's skiff had been sabotaged. Only a man knowledgeable about boats could've removed the dowel and butterfly cramp with such expertise. On the other hand, Senu had been on the Wand when Bak's skiff was cut free of its mooring. And his wife was a Kushite, a woman of royal blood.
"He could be anywhere," Huy said. "Probably at his quarters, or more likely in the barracks. It's time for the evening meal."
Bak stood on the quay, looking down at Inyotef's skiff, as sleek and pretty as any craft in the harbor. It looked much as usual: sail furled around the yards, lines neatly coiled out of the way, oars lying in the hull with several bound lengths of extra rope. As far as he could tell, nothing had been removed since he had last seen the vessel. Several items had been added: a pair of inflated goatskins; harpoons and other fishing equipment including a rod, a basket for the catch, and a pottery bowl containing fishhooks, weights, and extra line; and a good-sized reed basket covered with a lid. He dropped into the boat to peek inside. The container was empty.
If Inyotef planned to slay Anion-Psaro, he surely would make his escape by water. He knew the river well, the Belly of Stones. In fact, he had walked the shore only a few hours ago, seeing how high the water had risen, perhaps planning his escape. No other man in Iken knew the rapids as well. If he sailed down them, no one would be able to follow, and his way north would be clear. Not even a courier could carry the word ahead fast enough to catch him.
"Gone!"
Muttering a fervent curse, Bak held the torch high so he and Imsiba could study the small room at the front of Senu's house. It was clean, but far from neat. The sleeping platform and stairway to the roof were cluttered with toys. A reed chest standing open against the wall was stacked high with dishes, two other chests overflowed with bedding and clothing, as if the objects had been hastily dropped inside. An unused loom had been pushed against the wall, sharing the space with a tawny shield, bow and full quiver, and four spears. Seven large water jars leaned against another wall.
"They left an hour before nightfall, two at most." Senu's neighbor, a woman of middle years with thin gray hair and no shape to speak of, shifted a chubby, bright-eyed baby from one solid hip to the other. "A man came, a farmer he looked to be, and the next thing I knew they were leaving. The whole family. Senu, his wife, and all the children from the oldest to the youngest."
Bak questioned the woman further, but she could tell them nothing more. She had come to live in Iken less than a week before and had had no time to get to know Senu's family. The other houses in the block, she told them, were either empty or housed traders, transients who neither knew nor cared about their neighbors.
"One thing we know for a fact, my friend," Imsiba said after she had gone. "A man who runs away has a guilty conscience."
Bak wandered around the room, walked through two other rooms as cluttered as the first, and stepped into the kitchen. Senu and his family, it appeared, had dropped everything, leaving all they owned behind in their haste to go. Vegetables, fresh bread, a vat of beer brewing in the kitchen; more than a month's rations of grain in an alcove beneath the floor, bronze and beaded jewelry in a chest in one of the rear rooms; Senu's weapons.
"To run away, leaving so much behind, makes no sense, Imsiba."
"I agree, but why else would they go with such haste?" Bak, dead tired and discouraged, shook his head. "He has a farm somewhere, I've heard, but wouldn't they take food with them if that's where they went?"
Imsiba took the torch from his hand. "We can do nothing more tonight, my friend. Come with me to Kenamon's house, where you'll find food and a safe and comfortable bed."
A safe bed. Bak had never thought of himself as needing a safe haven, but now the offer came as a relief.
Bak lay wide-awake, watching the stars and the moon, overhead, worrying. He had finally narrowed his suspects to only two men-and both had vanished. Senu and his family had abandoned their house. Inyotef's house, accord
ing-to Kasaya, had looked as empty and deserted as his skiff.
Which of the two was guilty? Who would reappear armed with sword or dagger or bow and arrow, prepared to slay Amon-Psaro? The time of the attack, Bak could narrow down to a few short hours, for the king would only be vulnerable from the time he marched up to the gates of Iken to his arrival at the island fortress. Tomorrow, Bak thought. Sometime tomorrow the assassin will strike.
Chapter Seventeen
"Wake up, my friend!" Imsiba, kneeling beside Bak, shook his shoulder. "Wake up!"
Bak woke with a jolt. "What is it?"
Kenamon's apprentice, a bony young man shaven bald, wearing a long white kilt and a broad multicolored bead collar, knelt next to Imsiba. "My master sent me, sir, with news you should hear."
Bak sat up, moaned. His muscles ached, his throat was sore, his knees were bruised and skinned. Souvenirs of his struggles in the river.
"A courier just came from King Amon-Psaro, carrying a message for Commander Woser. I waylaid him, saying my master needed word of the sick child. The Kushite caravan set off before first light and they'll arrive without fail by midday. The young prince's health appears improved this morning, but yesterday he suffered greatly. The king is convinced every hour's delay carries the boy closer to death."
Bak glanced to the east. The lord Re, too near the horizon to be seen front` inside the fortress, was thrusting yellowgold arms high into a cloudless blue sky. The air was surprisingly clear and cooler than during much of the previous week. If the day remained temperate, it looked a perfect time for Amon-Psaro to march into Iken. The thought was
oppressive, throwing a dark and gloomy shadow over what should have been a grand and glorious day.
"I pray Kenamon can save the child." Imsiba's face and voice were as grim as Bak's thoughts.
"My master looks to each fragment of news as a piece of a puzzle." The priest spoke with the serenity of one whose belief was total. "He's had many clues; now he must see the boy. If the lord Amon chooses to smile on the child, one of several remedies he's prepared will cure his malady."
Bak hoped Kenamon's skills would live up to the young man's faith. "We'll offer a fine goose to the god."
The priest, his face flushed with pleasure, murmured his thanks and hurried away.
Hauling himself to his feet, Bak eyed the Medjays scattered around the rooftop of Kenamon's borrowed house, sitting or lying on their sleeping mats, eavesdropping. At his glance, they busied themselves with getting up, dressing, rolling away their sleeping mats, gathering together razors, body oils, fresh kilts, weapons polished to the glow of mirrors. The men, accustomed to slipping in and out of their barracks at any hour of night and day, spoke softly to one another as they would in their own quarters at Burn. Not a voice among them carried beyond the rooftop.
A nervous tension filled the air, Bak-noticed, and a multitude of emotions showed on their faces: the excitement of serving as guard of honor to a powerful king from wretched Kush; the gravity of guarding that monarch from an unknown assassin; and the hope that their officer would lay hands on the criminal before he struck-and in time to take his rightful place at their head.
Tall and straight, strong and manly, an elite company that filled Bak's heart with pride. He longed to be with them when Woser presented them to Amon-Psaro, handing them over for the duration of the royal visit to Iken, but the possibility
seemed remote.
"I have to find Inyotef and Senu." He clasped Imsiba's shoulders. "You know what you must do."
"I'll not take charge of the men until the last moment. You must stand at their head if you can."
"All who live in Iken will have heard by this time that the lord Amon is to move to the island fortress, making Amon-Psaro's daily trip through the city unnecessary." Bak picked up his kilt, scowled at the torn and dirty fabric, dropped it onto his sleeping mat. Although loath to do so, he donned the second of the two garments he had brought to Iken, the kilt he had intended to wear while leading the guard of honor. "Today will be the last time he'll be this exposed, this open to an attempt on his life."
"We'll stay close on his heels," Imsiba assured him. "If we all must die to save him, we'll do so."
Bak refused to dwell on so grim a possibility. "I think I know which of my suspects is guilty, but I must look to both to be sure. If all goes well, I'll reach a satisfactory conclusion long before he can strike Amon-Psaro." The words sounded good, but could he live up to the promise?
Bak hurried down the stairs to a house empty but for two servants. Kenamon and his fellows had gone to the mansion of Hathor to perform the morning ritual. A portly man was busy packing the priests' clothing and jewelry into woven reed chests, readying them for the move to the island fortress. He handled each object no matter how mundane as if it were worthy of the same regard as the priestly accoutrements of office. The woman, as plump as her husband and far more cheerful, was bustling around the open-roofed kitchen, baking bread and hovering over a thick beef stew meant to satiate the priests' hunger after their morning fast.
Bak slipped into the room Kenamon had used as his own. The chamber had been cleared of the elderly priest's personal effects. Only the furniture remained-a bed, two woven chests, and a table-and a statue of the household god Bes standing in a wall niche. Removing the ugly, bowleg
ged god, he revealed the four pieces of broken pottery he had found in the hideaway of the mute boy Ramose. He took the shards from the niche and sat cross-legged on the floor, studying the sketches in a patch of sunlight falling from a high window.