Pharaoh's Gold

by Nathaniel Burns

  Shabaka retook his seat and with a bored tone started, “It is in the interest of you and your family to answer my questions truthfully. Should you be found to answer untruthfully, the pharaoh will consider punishment. ” Shabaka again looked towards the scribe as he concluded, “Do you understand this?”

  “I may understand it but what confuses me is how you will know if I tell you the truth.”

  Shabaka looked at the man for several moments before he flatly stated, “If I think you are not, we will simply whip the truth from you.”

  The man gave no response, thus Shabaka continued, “Please state your name and area of mastership.”

  “My name is Atul, and I am the metal craft master to.”

  “As the craft master, what are your duties?”

  “I assist with the training and selections of apprenticeships, I take orders from the pharaoh, and I check all the wares before they leave the hall.”

  “You check all of the wares?” Shabaka asked.

  “Yes, I have to ensure that they are properly made and sharpened.”

  “What of your castoffs? What happens to them?”

  Atul looked at Shabaka in confusion before answering, “I am certain that as both a prince and a prefect you would know that such objects would be reheated and remolded or cast, depending on the metal.”

  “What metals do you work with?”

  We work with copper, iron and, at times, silver.” Atul answered.

  “You mentioned that you assist with the training of the apprentices?”

  “Ha! Unlike those other fools who believe they train up their apprentices, I am not taken by such beliefs. My assistants do most of the training.”

  “I see,” Shabaka said “And how long would you say it takes an apprentice to become proficient?”

  “There is not much to learn when it comes to melting or casting metal. So one could become relatively proficient in a short period of time, however, shaping heated metal with a hammer or sharpening metal, those require skill.”

  “But it does not take overly long to become proficient?”

  “I would not say so.”

  “Have you ever purposely used your tools to inflict injury on anyone?”

  The man seemed hesitant to answer and appeared to think it over for some time before finally replying, “That is a very difficult question to answer.”

  “How so?’ Shabaka asked.

  ‘Because it depends on how you view it?”’

  “And how is that?’

  “I cannot say yes and I also cannot say no.”

  “You either have or you have not.”

  “That is where the problem lies. My craftsmen make weapons, Kadesh daggers, spear, and arrowheads. Thus when our work is done with the exact purpose of inflicting injury during war.”

  Shabaka looked at the man for several moments before rephrasing the question. “Have you ever intentionally hurt someone with the tools you use to shape metal?”

  Atul for several long moments looked at Shabaka, before also rephrasing the question, “I think the question you need to ask is: have you ever intentionally harmed someone under instruction of the Pharaoh? And to that, my answer would be yes.”

  “How so?” Shabaka asked, for a moment confused.

  “I am often tasked with marking the pharaoh’s cattle or a person that the pharaoh has pardoned for their crimes. I have also burned out the eyes of the insane.” Atul answered. “That they make me guilty of inflicting injury ordered by the pharaoh.”

  Shabaka thought it over for several moments as the scribe hastily noted down Atul’s words. “Well then have you ever intentionally inflicted harm upon someone without orders from the pharaoh?”

  “No.” The man said, “To do so would anger the gods and condemn my Ba in the afterlife.”

  “How well did you know Geris?” Shabaka asked.

  “He was a good man, a good worker. I would not have minded having him on my shaping crew. The man had true skill.”

  “I take it you admired his work.”

  “Yes! Certainly! As a fellow craftsman, I know the complexities of metal working, but his work was neat. Neat-neat, like a good sheet of papyrus paper, with no bumps or raised areas.”

  “Do you know of anyone who did not get along with Geris?”

  The man thought it over for several moment before he spoke, “You know, after the death of his wife and son, Geris held to himself most times. I know several have introduced him to women, but he eventually started avoiding gatherings altogether.”

  “I see,” Shabaka said. “But you do no know of anyone who would want him dead?”

  “No, he was too mild-mannered, unless he had a mad side we knew nothing of.”

  Shabaka remained silent for several moments, waiting for the scribe, before continuing. “Have you heard the rumors about gold being stolen?

  “Ugh,” the man scoffed dismissively, “I do not know of a moon’s turn where we have not had some rumor about gold or silver going missing. Like the others I do not heed the rumors, since it is not my area that is affected by them.”

  “Have you ever taken gold from the craft hall?”

  Atul looked at him first in astonishment, and then appeared to think it over. He finally nodded. “There was that time that the pharaoh wanted a dagger to be made of gold, and because no one at the hall knows how to sharpen a gold blade, I had to seek some assistance from one of the older masters.”

  “But you brought it back?”

  “Of course I did. As it turns out, gold is too soft a metal to use for weapons, and it also does not remain sharp for a long.”

  Shabaka looked towards the scribe and again asked for the man to read back the notes and then to have them signed.

  15

  Chapter Fifteen

  “This was a waste of time,” Shabaka pronounced looking at the various pages of scribbled papyrus then dropping them to the platform in front of him. “It could be any of these men and none of them.” He then turned and started pacing the room.

  “The metal craft master seems the most likely.” Neti said, before looking up from the sheet she was reading.

  “Yes, he may seem the most likely, but somehow I do not think it is him, or that he knows anything of Geris’ murder.”

  “How could you know that?” Neti asked.

  “Because he reminds me of my father’s brother,” Shabaka said returning to the platform.

  “Oh, this should be interesting,” Neti enthused, turning her full attention to him.

  “Why so?” Shabaka asked confused.

  “You never talk about your family. And seeing you have seen a likeness, it should be interesting to hear what you base it on.”

  Shabaka took a deep breath and thought it over for several long moments, “When I was a young boy, I used to look up to my uncle. I mean who could not? He was a proud man and whenever my father was away from the kingdom, it was his responsibility to ensure that things remained in order. He knew all the right words to say to rally people and many believed him to be a better leader than my father.”

  “But he was not,” Neti said having watched Shabaka’s expression.

  Shabaka shook his head before continuing. “No, my uncle had one weakness, women. And it was a woman who betrayed him in the end.”

  Form his tone Neti knew Shabaka would not divulge more than that, so she asked, “How is he similar to this man?”

  “Because this man knows how to trick people into trusting him,” Shabaka said on the back of a heavy sigh.

  “Do you trust him, this craft master?”

  “I have no idea who to trust between these men.,” he honestly replied, looking at Neti.

  “What does your instincts tell you?” Neti asked, sensing his frustration.

  “That they are not guilty – but I also know that someone has to be.”

  “You know as well as I do that we cannot make one guilty.” Neti said.

  “I know,” Shabaka said, frustrated. “Bu
t it would be so much easier if we could.”

  Just then Seota entered the room, she looked from one to the other for several moments before asking Neti, “Where are the gold records?”

  “Why would you need those?” Neti asked as the girl approached the platform.

  “I want to check something,” Seota said with a certainty in her voice that piqued the interest of both Neti and Shabaka.

  “Would you mind telling us what?” Shabaka asked.

  “It might not be anything,” Seota said as Neti handed her a pack of papyri

  Seota quickly flipped through the records until she came to the one she considered the correct page. Tracing down the page with her finger, she stopped around the middle of the third column. She read the figures and then flipped a couple more pages before doing the same. She went through the motion several times and eventually shook her head.

  “What is it?” Neti asked, her and Shabaka having observed the girls actions in silence.

  “If it has you excited this much, it might lead somewhere,” Shabaka said.

  Seota looked up at Neti and then Shabaka, hesitantly stating, “I would not want to waste your time with a foolish thought.”

  “At the moment I am open to any foolish thought, helpful or not,” Shabaka said. “As it is I think today’s effort, in total, was somewhat of a fools practice.”

  Seota looked towards Shabaka as she began to speak, “You know how you told me to watch the people while the masters were away.”

  “Yes, did you notice anything?” Shabaka asked, a note of hope in his voice.

  “That is what I came to check.” Seota said lifting the sheets of papyri.

  “What happened?” Neti asked, hoping to draw the girl out.

  “Well,” Seota started. “The hall is well organized. I think the men don’t really even need their craft masters to do their work.” Shabaka’s shoulders appeared to droop. “But,” Seota continued. “I noticed that while everyone was going about their duties, there was one man, one of the gold workers who moved between the others at the furnaces. I tried to observe him without seeming too apparent, so it took me some time to realize what he was doing.”

  “What was he doing?” Shabaka quickly asked.

  “It appears as if he is swapping out the gold nuggets between them.”

  “You saw this?” Shabaka as good as demanded

  Seota was, for a moment, taken aback by Shabaka’s sudden shift in mood and hesitantly nodded.

  “Sorry,” Shabaka said having realized his sudden shift in mood, may have scared her.

  Seota turned her attention to Neti instead as she continued. “But it did not appear as if the others seemed concerned by his actions.”

  Shabaka looked at Neti, “She might be on to something here.”

  “What?” Seota asked confused.

  Neti nodded her head as she said, “She might be. We’ve been looking for a specific individuals wile going through the documents, but by swapping out the nuggets it would make it easier to throw off the numbers and so steal small amounts.”

  “You mean he is guilty?” Seota asked.

  “Well it is not as simple as that,” Neti said. “But it does give us a different methodology.”

  “Which is?” Seota asked.

  “We have for some time expected that it might be a group of people. Which was why we were looking at individuals, which should have shown up then in the records. We never corralled the amount to determine during which process the gold seemed to go missing. And by doing that we can establish which group of people is responsible.”

  Neti then reached for the papyri, “We need to go through these again.” She then looked up at Seota. “Quickly, run to the scribe’s room and collect us more paper and ink.”

  “Or we could just bring him in for questioning, it is not that hard.”

  Neti turned her attention to him as she spoke, “I think we have had a long enough day of asking question, without knowing what answers we seek.”

  Shabaka reluctantly nodded, “But I have no desire to go through these again.

  “As Seota said, it may be something and it may not. Let us just be certain before we again disrupt the hall, this time it could really act as a warning to those guilty that we are close to finding them.

  Shabaka nodded in agreement and again looked at the scrolls, “I will not be of any help here Many of the figures I don’t understand.”

  “You should go speak with Ramesses, bolster his mood, tell him we have found something today, for I fear he has become just as frustrated by the events,” Neti said adding. “Besides, we may again need some guards to escort us to the craft hall.”

  “Just remember we cannot remove these men from the hall as we did the craft masters.” Neti said.

  |”Why ever not?” Shabaka asked.

  “Because removing them would bring the entire section of gold crafters to a halt.”

  Shabaka nodded. “I had not thought of that, but we can search their homes,” Shabaka said.

  “Only if we have reason to,” Neti cautioned. “If there is a thief in the hall we would not want to alert them to the possibility of their home being searched.”

  “That is also true,” Shabaka said as Seota returned with the ink and sheets of papyrus.

  Neti gestured for her to sit down and started, “We can do this in two ways.” And pointed to the paper. “We can each select a name and work it through, or one of us can read and the other can write.”

  “I think the second would be faster,” Seota said. “I’ll read because you can write faster.”

  Shabaka returned some time later to find Neti and Seota merely pondering over the pages.

  “You have finished already?|” Shabaka asked, surprised.

  “It turns out that there are only a few men who work with the melted gold, so it was not as much work as I had anticipated.

  “And have you found anything?”

  “That is what we are checking now,” Neti said as Seota marked something off on a sheet.

  “What are you looking for? Shabaka asked settling next to Neti.

  “A pattern of some sorts,” Neti said.

  “A pattern?” Shabaka asked, confused.

  “Yes all processes have a pattern. And any alteration there from would be cause for alarm.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Shabaka said.

  “I’ll use an example,” Neti started, handing the sheet she had to Seota before continuing. “When I process a body, depending on the size thereof, I know approximately how much palm wine, how much natron, herbs, and anointing oil I will need. This differs sometimes, but not by much. By knowing approximately how much I will need, it means that most times, I have some left over. So the amount I use is actually a pattern. As long as it remains within the allocated amount, there is no reason to suspect anything. But say I take on an apprentice, even the apprentice should use the same amount, so if there is more than usually left over – they would not have done their work, or if they use more, they are wasting.”

  “So you are looking for large variations in the amounts of gold.”

  “Yes, but at the moment we can’t even determine a proper pattern, possibly because the one man is switching out nuggets. We know that there are other metals mixed with the gold, but those are only fully extracted during the process with the natron. Which means there should not be that great a difference between the nuggets and the bars cast. So we are hoping to establish an amount we could consider acceptable for this variation. That way we can identify if there is anyone who has a greater loss.”

  “And that person would be the most likely one involved,” Shabaka concluded,

  Neti nodded and then turned her attention to Seota who was still adding and subtracting.

  “You did not by any chance learn the name of this person?” Shabaka asked Seota. “Because then we could heck his figures first.”

  Seota looked up from the papyri but shook her head, “But I would be able of ident
ifying him for you.” She then returned to her work.

  “You may have to,” Neti said a while later, looking up. “I can’t see any pattern here.”

  “What do you mean?” Shabaka asked.

  “There is no amount that one could consider as a guide. All we can determine is that this is where the gold appears to be disappearing, but in such small amounts that I would be too afraid to say they are stealing it.”

  “Why so?” Shabaka asked.

  “Because it is less than a kite every time. Their amounts are slightly more on certain days than what one would expect and on others it is lower.”

  “Do you think this guy swapping out the nuggets could be causing it?” Shabaka asked.

  “Possibly.” Neti said, but did not sound overly convinced.

  “Possibly?” Shabaka asked.

  “Even if he is, it does not explain the missing amount,” Neti said. He added on noticing Shabaka’s frown, “All I can definitely say is that there is something going on – but then we knew that.”

  “So we question all of them tomorrow,” Shabaka said.

  “That is just the problem, we don’t know if all three of them are working tomorrow. From what I have established here, there are four of them in group, with three on duty all the time while the forth is off. It is possible that they all may be involved.”

  The following morning, they made their way to the craft hall. To say that their arrival was unwelcome would be an understatement, since none of the craft masters even bothered to welcome them and even the crafter looked at them with distain.

  Shabaka gestured to the guards to once again take up their positions at the doors, which again, resulted in the Master Craftsman stomping to Shabaka and angrily demanding, “Do you not think that you have disrupted the work of this hall often enough now?”

  Shabaka pulled himself up to this full height as he answered, “You know as well as I do that we both answer to the same pharaoh. And that is there is a crime committed my authority outranks yours.”

  “So you pulling rank now?” The man demanded.

  “If I need to.” Shabaka calmly replied.