by N. L. Holmes
Dawn was beginning to bring into view the world outside the circle of the lamp. Baket-iset lay asleep or unconscious. Neferet laid a hand on her sister’s forehead and gave a shriek of excitement. “The fever’s broken, Mama, Papa!” She felt under Baket-iset’s jaw then turned with a triumphant look at Bener-ib and began to bounce up and down on her buttocks. “She’s passed the crisis—I think she’s going to live. She’s going to live!”
Nub-nefer broke into loud sobs of joy. She cradled Baket-iset’s face in her hands and kissed her again and again as if hungry for her sweet living flesh. Hani put his arms around his wife and squeezed her with all his tender strength, fighting back the tears that at last sprang forth. Aha, Pa-kiki, and Sat-hut-haru sprang upright, awakened by the cries, and soon, they were all clustered around their sister, weeping and praying aloud to Sekhmet in thanksgiving.
In a delirium of relief, Hani gazed down at his eldest daughter, his eyes blurred with tears. At his back, Mery-ra whispered, “It was your amulet, Hani. Serqet has saved another life.”
CHAPTER 12
A week had slowly passed as Baket-iset convalesced with Ta-miu curled at her side—the rest of the family feeling a heightened gratitude for all the blessings they were to one another. Within Hani had throbbed the desire for vengeance as well. He hardly knew himself. He kept muttering savagely, “The floodwaters will carry him away; the north wind descends to end his hour...”
He and Maya and Mery-ra were enjoying the evening breeze in the garden pavilion. Aha and Pa-kiki had gone back to their homes, their wives, and their children. In fact, Mut-nodjmet, spending time with her cousins, was at Baket-iset’s bedside with Sat-hut-haru as the men chatted outside.
Hani took a deep suck at his straw and stretched out his legs. “I guess I should get myself back up north. We have things to do.” He raised a significant eyebrow at Maya. He hated to pull the boy away from his new baby son, but they had a mission.
“Have you any leads in your murder case?” asked Mery-ra, his arms folded over his head to cool his armpits.
“He almost has to be the same man who pushed Baket overboard all those years ago, Father. Not just anyone could muster that kind of rage against a stranger. You’d have to have something terrible against a person to do something like that to him, unless you were Amen-nefer.”
“You wouldn’t believe how quickly he can fly from all pleasant to insane with anger, Lord Mery-ra,” said Maya. “All his slaves are black and blue.”
“We need to find out everything we can about him before we go back up to Kumidi. We want an airtight case against him. And maybe”—Hani looked up as a sudden idea crossed his mind—“Bin-addi can give us more information now that he’s not in fear for his life.”
“I’ll bet Meryet-amen will know all the gossip. I’ll ask her. And maybe your evil friend has relatives still alive, if they would be willing to talk to us.”
“That’s a good idea. Why don’t you and Maya undertake that investigation, and I’ll talk to our newest servant.”
Mery-ra and Maya exchanged an eager look. Hani’s father loved to get involved with Hani’s cases now that he was retired from his career as a military scribe, and Maya was always happiest when he could grill someone, or “rough them up a little verbally” as he put it. He’s the one who should have been named Mai-her-pri, Hani thought with paternal affection.
“Tomorrow morning, then, we can head off to our respective assignments and meet at lunchtime to debrief.” He rose to his feet. “I think I’ll go on to bed, my friends. I want to talk a little with Baket on my way.”
“I’ll start quizzing Meryet-amen tonight.” Mery-ra, too, rose.
“It’s probably best not to be out on the street too late, both of you. Things have been quieter this year, but one never knows when some firebrand will incite people to riot,” Hani said. Some firebrand like my brother-in-law.
Maya popped up in turn. “Let me check if Sat-hut-haru is ready to go.”
He saw the two men and Sat-hut-haru off at the gate and then made his way inside, where Baket-iset lay in the company of her mother. “How are my favorite girls?” Hani asked with a smile, seating himself on the edge of his daughter’s bed and patting her arm fondly.
“Better, Papa. Every day, I’m getting better,” she replied, weak but happy.
Hani reached over and squeezed Nub-nefer’s hand—a gesture of thankful solidarity.
He said softly, “Baket, my swan, do you remember what you were saying in your delirium last week?”
A cloud drifted across the young woman’s face, a look that wanted to be brave but staggered a little. She said in a small voice, “I can remember everything, Papa.”
Hani’s heartbeat stepped up its pace. “My dear, would it be too painful to tell me what you remember—”
“Oh, Hani, no!” Nub-nefer cried.
“We’re trying to prosecute the man I think did it. We know he’s guilty of some other crimes but maybe murder as well.” Maybe several murders, if slaves are human beings—and the gods know they are. He said to Baket, even while looking at Nub-nefer, “I swear to you, my swan, that I’ll make him pay for what he’s done to you.”
Nub-nefer seemed to understand. She stared him in the eye, fierce. “Do it, Hani. No girl is safe with such a monster around.”
“But we need evidence of all his misdeeds. What do you remember about that day?”
Baket-iset’s face grew paler than its already drained color. She licked her fever-chapped lips and took a deep breath. “We were coming back to the east bank from the Per-hay after the old king’s jubilee. The children were all scattered, playing on the deck. I don’t know where you and Mama were. There was a man who kept trying to make me talk to him, to stand with him, and hold his hand. I’d move and he’d follow. He was worse than annoying, Papa. It started becoming scary. He reached out to touch me, even, but I kept dodging away, looking around for you and Mama. I was standing at the gunwales, watching them tie up the boat and put down the gangplank, when he reached out for me again. This time, he tried to grab me and make me kiss him, and I slapped his hand away and said I was going to call my father.” She closed her eyes for a moment as if gathering her strength. “He became furiously angry, maniacal. He yelled, ‘You’re all alike!’ And then he shoved me backward through the opening and down the gangplank. Perhaps he didn’t mean to.” Tears had started to leak from her kohl-painted eyes, and her mouth trembled.
Nub-nefer bent over her, stroking her face. “It’s past, my love. The man can’t hurt you anymore.”
Rage was mounting inside Hani, but he managed to say in a calm, quiet voice, “And what did that man look like?”
“Handsome enough. A young soldier. He had a cleft chin and one eye all burned out. A strange, metallic voice.”
It could be no one else but Amen-nefer. Hani felt his mouth transforming itself into a snarl of hatred in spite of himself. “That’s him.”
Nub-nefer’s beautiful face had hardened into flint. She fixed Hani with a red-hot stare. There was no question about what she wanted him to do. And for once, the calm, easygoing man who was Hani was perfectly ready to do the worst.
He rose, his breath steaming from his nose, and stalked out onto the porch, where he stood in the sweet air of a summer evening, incapable of clear thought. Surely ma’at demands the bastard who did this to my daughter should pay a heavy price. Or does putting a price on her blighted life cheapen it? Perhaps killing him is too good for him—a quick death is too merciful. Hani realized with horror that what he really wanted to do was to bash Amen-nefer to pieces as someone had done to Shulum-marduk.
He shook himself, as if to cast off the shadow Hani who’d shown his hideous face, and headed through the garden to the service yard, where Bin-addi and his family were quartered in the
small apartment adjoining the goat pen.
The ex-slave was sitting in front of the little house, legs crossed, leaning back against the whitewashed wall. He wasn’t visibl
e as much more than a dark silhouette against the pale limewash. Bin-addi rose at Hani’s approach and bowed, with a trace of his old subservience. “My lord. I was just taking in the evening in your beautiful garden.”
A dim orange light was shining from the high window of the house, and a woman’s voice was singing nursery songs. It had to be the children’s bedtime. Hani clapped Bin-addi on the shoulder. “Listen, my friend. If you want to work for me as a free man, you’re welcome. I’ll pay you a normal wage for domestics. And no doubt, Nub-nefer could find something for your wife to do.”
The former slave fell to his knees and stooped to kiss Hani’s toes, murmuring, “You’re too good, my lord!”
Hani drew him to his feet and said in a friendly tone, “You’ll earn your wages. It’s no kindness on my part.” He pondered for a moment. “In fact, you can do me a kindness now that you’re safe and free.”
Bin-addi’s face was barely visible in the gloaming, but the sudden stiffness of his body told Hani that he knew what was coming. “I—”
“Who killed the Babylonian?”
Bin-addi backed up slightly as if ready to make a break for it. “I can’t say, my lord.”
“You mean you don’t know, or you don’t want to say?”
“I’ve sworn an oath.”
He knows, Ammit take him. “You told me before that Amen-nefer killed Zalaya because he knew something,” Hani persisted. “Did Amen-nefer kill the Babylonian?”
“I... I don’t know, my lord.”
Hani forced himself to keep his tone gentle. “Bin-addi, you’re going to find life hard in a foreign country without a patron. You need my good will. Tell me. The commissioner can’t touch you here.”
But the man repeated obdurately, “I’ve sworn on my father’s soul, my lord.”
Hani bit back his frustration. It has to be Amen-nefer, but I’ve got to have evidence. And the damned slaves know but won’t tell.
“Who else knows, Bin-addi?” Hani said. “Is there anyone else who will tell me?” A sudden idea flashed through his mind. “What about Zalaya’s wife?”
Bin-addi hung his head for a moment. Then he said, “No, my lord.”
“You’re lying, my friend. After all that I’ve done for you.”
The former slave was squirming. “Forgive me, Lord Hani, but I just can’t...”
“All right, my friend. Have it your way. Amen-nefer will go free to rape and murder other people in his rages.”
Bin-addi stood cowed, head drooping, and Hani walked away in disappointment so massive he thought it might weigh him to the ground. He directed his bare footsteps into the garden, where the crickets pulsed rhythmically in the darkness, and took a seat in the pavilion. There were mosquitoes, but he barely noticed them. He watched the half-moon rising in the east, among the branches of the sycomore, shedding patches of silver light on the gravel, and it reminded him of the battle against the hapiru.
How do they come into this affair? Maya said there were two factions. The men who attacked us seem to be renegades, rather than the ‘official’ troops of Shum-addi. Did someone really put them up to attacking our caravan specifically? And could it have been the renegades who attacked the Babylonians? And if so, what relationship do they have with Amen-nefer, who is apparently half of their blood? He let out a sigh of frustration. “Maybe the others will find out something.”
⸎
If only I knew our friend’s father’s name, I might be able to find someone who knows where his family live, Maya thought. Curious neighbors would certainly be full of gossip. He decided that he would pay a visit to the former Hall of Royal Correspondence in the hopes that a public figure like a commissioner would have some kind of dossier predating the present regime.
They knew Maya well in the Hall. One of the nicer scribes was on duty in the reception room that day, and Maya said in a friendly, if slightly officious, tone, “May the lord of the horizon bless you, my good man. I’m the secretary of Lord Hani, the Master of the King’s Stables.”
The man nodded, unimpressed and perhaps a little amused. “I know you, Maya.”
“He’s conducting an investigation and would like to know the full name of the commissioner of Kumidi. I trust that’s hardly a secret. Could you tell me? It’s Amen-nefer son of...?”
“The records are probably in Akhet-aten. Oh, wait one moment. I think I know where it might be, if he held any kind of position, military or civilian, more than ten years ago.” He disappeared into an archive room, and Maya could see through the open door that the man was scanning the labels on the papyrus scrolls shelved inside. At last, he drew one out, ran his eyes quickly down the columns, and rolled the scroll up again. He returned to the reception hall and said to Maya, “It’s Amen-nefer son of Ah-hotep-ra.”
“Thank you. You’ve been very helpful to the royal investigator.”
Pleased with the first step in his day’s work, Maya exited the cool shade of the building. The outside court was baking and afire with glare, even in this early hour of the morning. He put a sheltering hand over his eyes to improve his vision. Where to now? He decided that the army would have some sort of records on Amen-nefer and maybe even know the whereabouts of his family home.
Maya trudged south toward the garrison, which was still the major one along with the one at Men-nefer. As a Theban, Amen-nefer should have left some sort of enrollment record there. The secretary approached the walled compound with an optimistic spring in his step. An inquiry at the gate brought him an officer who was willing to give Maya some time.
The man, a square, broad-shouldered block of a soldier in his early forties, greeted Maya with his fists on his hips. “My name is Isesi-ankh, standard-bearer of the Pride of Montu company. What can I do for you?”
“The vizier has commanded an investigation of the commissioner Amen-nefer, my lord. Can you give me any information? Perhaps the location of his family home?”
Isesi-ankh gave a short bark of laughter. “Why? Has he killed someone?”
“Why would you say that?” Maya could feel a ripple of excitement climbing its way up his neck.
“Because he’s the most vicious attack dog of a man I’ve ever met. An asset on the field of battle but a man I would avoid at any cost in real life.”
“In fact,” Maya confided, “he is being investigated for a possible murder.”
Isesi-ankh gave a snort. “No surprise.”
“Anyone here in Waset who might know something about his actions? Relatives?”
“He has a sister, still living in their father’s home, poor woman. Never been able to marry. Word has it that your friend Amen-nefer used to abuse her terribly as a youth—you know what I mean. She probably wished he would die in battle every time he went on campaign. And I should know,” the officer said bitterly. “I courted her in our youth. She was already broken irreparably. Her brother was still in the cavalry at that point.”
Maya sucked in his breath in horror.
“He hated women. With his good looks and charm, he could attract them easily enough. But he meant them nothing but harm. I always felt really sorry for the poor fool who married him. And sure enough, she didn’t last long.”
Iy, Maya thought, chilled. What a monster. “Do you think there’s any point in trying to see his sister? Would she know anything that might be useful—his friends or his political alignments?”
“Word had it—I don’t know this to be true, mind you—that he was a creature of Lord Ay. That that’s the way he got out of the trouble he stirred up in the cavalry and got slid over to us.”
He was in the cavalry? How odd. I wonder why the God’s Father protected such a person. “Do you think there’s any point in interviewing his sister? Would she even talk to me?”
The officer’s brows knotted in hatred. “I doubt it. There’s not much left of her. You have my blessing on any charge of misdeeds you find on the bastard. He’s a disgrace to the army.”
“Did he... did he have anything against fo
reigners? Against Babylonians, let’s say?”
“I don’t have any idea, but he was a man filled with hatred. It’s a fair guess he hated foreigners as well.”
Maya thanked Isesi-ankh and headed in the direction of Lord Hani’s house. The morning was late. He couldn’t wait to tell his father-in-law what he’d learned.
⸎
After lunch, Hani, Maya, and Mery-ra retreated to the garden pavilion to review what they had learned. Hani could see that his father was about to burst with something juicy. “Father, did your lady friend have any insights?”
“Oh yes, indeed.” Mery-ra’s little eyes twinkled. “It turns out our boy was in the cavalry, and Meryet-amen’s late husband was his commanding officer for a while.”
“Cavalry?” Hani cried in surprise. “But he seems to be in the infantry now—at least he has command of infantrymen.”
Mery-ra grinned. “He was expelled from the cavalry for fighting with his fellows, and somehow, he wangled his way into the infantry as a sort of fresh start. His record would more or less be wiped clean, and no one would know his past.”
“I heard the same thing,” said Maya eagerly. “And that it was Lord Ay’s influence that got him transferred and not kicked out.”
“Lord Ay is head of the cavalry. I suspect anything he wanted to happen would.” If Amen-nefer had some sort of relationship with the Great Queen’s father, that would explain how a man with such a spotty career might be appointed commissioner of Kumidi. Not for the first time, Hani was overwhelmed with disgust at the corruption in his own government. He looked up. “Anything else?”
“Meryet-amen remembered clearly a scandal attached to Amen-nefer’s family. Of course, a man from the lower aristocracy marrying some bandit from Djahy was bad enough, but then the father died and left the two children in the care of his widow. She drank, Hani, and would fly into terrible drunken rages. She beat the children and the slaves mercilessly. It was common knowledge.”