Murder in the Palace: A Nikolas of Kydonia Mystery

by Iain Campbell

  “I want to help, as the gods would wish me to do. I seek nothing in return,” said Nikolas. “Tell me, do you have a Wise-Woman who knows of herbs and remedies?”

  “No,” replied Siptah. “We had a woman who had some knowledge but she died several years ago and had not trained another to take her place.”

  Nikolas nodded and said, “I will return to Aswan to collect my remedies and be back before midday.”

  Kiya decided to remain and wait for Nikolas and was shown into the headman’s hut, which was slightly larger than the others and the nearest to the village well. The hut was well-constructed with dry-stone walls, a reed-thatched roof and dirt floor. The house contained no furniture and only a few blankets and home-made woven mats on the floor. A cooking fire smouldered outside the front door. While she waited Kiya asked to meet the young women of the village and quickly selected a slight young woman just past the Age of Knowledge named Henut. Henut was quick, intelligent and had a sly sense of humour.

  Meanwhile Nikolas took both donkeys and hurried the short distance back to the ‘Black Raven’, collected his medical case and quickly visited an apothecary to purchase further supplies that he would need. On his return, a little after midday, he dismounted stiffly from his donkey outside the hut and removed the load from the second animal before going inside.

  He was introduced to Henut by Kiya and after greetings were exchanged he bid her to go and wash herself, as also did Nikolas and Kiya using a bucket of water by the well.

  Nikolas showed Henut the herbs and ingredients he had brought and took out a mortar and pestle to show her how to grind the herbs and mix the unguents and creams and to prepare infusions and decoctions of medicinal herbs.

  After several hours of preparation he bid Siptah to bring forth the women and children of the village, the men still being at work in the quarry above the village. Nikolas started with the children, carefully examining each. Many had diseased eyes, to which Nikolas gently applied drops of a decoction of chamomile, garlic juice, rue and hemp, with antibiotic properties. Kiya soothed the children as the solution stung their eyes. Those with ear infections were treated with an antibiotic remedy containing garlic oil, onion oil and olive leaf.

  Cuts and sores were anointed with an antiseptic unguent based on willow-bark, aloe vera, yarrow and myrtle; pomegranate for diarrhoea; poultices of barley, alkanet, powdered carob, garlic and juniper berries and sawdust. Without bothering to check each patient, Nikolas assumed that they were all suffering both intestinal worms and schistosomiasis, endemic problems particularly amongst the poor, and provided a draught of wormwood, ground carob-pod, balanites and ginger. As they progressed, Nikolas had Henut treat others, firstly under his supervision and then with Kiya’s assistance.

  Next they examined the women with Kiya and Henut performing most of the diagnosis and, with the advice of Nikolas, the treatment.

  The sun was low in the sky as Nikolas, Kiya and Henut walked to the lepers’ quarters and bade them to come forth. Close up the sight and stench of the open puss-filled sores were enough to turn the stomach. They worked swiftly but carefully and gently, applying creams and bandaging to keep the flies from further infecting the wounds.

  On returning to the headman’s hut Nikolas and the two women washed their hands in a herbal antiseptic solution.

  Twilight was falling as the men of the village came down the hill from their labours. The men were bidden to sit around the fires, eating the evening meal of thin barley porridge prepared by their women. Nikolas had Siptah arrange for torches to be brought and he and Henut moved amongst the men. Apart from some recent cuts and bruises the men were in rude good health; they were hardened by years of physical labour but were thin and undernourished. When at last they were done Nikolas rose tiredly and stretched.

  Siptah strode towards him, clapped him firmly on one shoulder and led him towards the fire outside his hut. “Words cannot express our thanks,” said Siptah as Ashait handed Nikolas and Kiya each a bowl of plain barley porridge, the only food available.

  Nikolas said, “I’ll leave some stores of medicines with Henut for her to use. She should have another woman to assist her and she should go several days a week to work with a Wise-Woman in the city. That will give her both knowledge and earn some money to buy supplies. If she calls in two days time at our hostel I’ll see what I can arrange. In the meantime I give you this to buy food for your people,” handing a small purse to Siptah.

  Siptah shook his head slowly, speechless at this generosity.

  Ashait said, “May the goddess Hathor bless you both for what you have done!”

  Nikolas paused and asked Siptah, “Why is your village in this situation? Mining is a necessary trade and I’d understood the miners were well provided for. You are valuable tradesmen.”

  “That was true once,” replied Siptah with a sigh. “But about two years ago that changed. The Overseer of Mines reduced the supplies we are provided and our tally quotas were increased. We work harder for less.”

  “Why do you not complain? This isn’t right,” asked Kiya.

  Siptah snorted in disgust. “I have been headman for two years. My predecessor was named Kuenre; he and the men of the village council went to the city and demanded audience with the Nomarch, our lord.” Siptah paused. “Their heads were returned to us. The bodies were fed to the crocodiles.”

  Kiya and Nikolas gasped, astounded not just at the unlawful treatment meted out, but the callous way that the authorities had punished the men not just in this life but also the next. With their bodies destroyed they could not hope for an Afterlife. Nikolas resolved to see justice done and the village once again prosper.

  T T T T

  Next morning Siptah showed Nikolas and Kiya the quarry. The men were labouring to cut an obelisk from a section of flat granite bedrock. It was twelve paces long and they had cut out the upper surface and each side and started to undercut the underneath to free the giant monument. The men carefully wielded stone hammers and bronze chisels as they worked in the cramped confines of the pit.

  Siptah mentioned that at an another quarry three miles to the south granite sarcophagi and colossal statues were being carved, and Nikolas was shown the path leading further south with the intention of he and Kiya seeing this work.

  The donkeys carefully picked their way along the pebble-strewn track as they wound on their way through the low barren hills. It took over two hours before they reached the next village. By then the sun had risen well clear of the hilltops and beat down unmercifully from the cloudless sky. Nikolas and Kiya paused from time to time to take a drink from their water-skins.

  This village was larger than Shallal, but again had the look of stark and abject poverty. A few hundred paces to the left the hillside had been cut down to the bare granite bedrock. Gangs of men toiled in the quarry; some were using stone hammers and bronze chisels to cut a straight line of holes into the stone behind the quarry working-face. Others were hammering long wooden pegs into holes that had already been cut and were pouring water from large pottery jars onto the wood to soak it to expand the wood to cause the stone to crack. As Nikolas and Kiya watched another group of men prised loose a massive sheet of granite. The foreman called a warning to those below as it slowly toppled outwards and fell several yards before sliding further down the slope created by the accumulation of rubble and waste from the rock-face above, raising a cloud of dust as it fell and slid.

  Yet another group of men was preparing to move one of the massive granite blocks away from the quarry. Whereas the other more skilled workers in the quarry were freemen, Nikolas could tell that these were slaves using their muscles to drag the stone blocks.

  An overseer stood behind them with a long whip, occasionally lashing at one or another of the slaves and shouting for them to redouble their efforts. Round balks of timber had been placed under the stone block and other timber logs positioned on the downward slope on the intended path. Nikolas was surprised to see how close they were to
the river, which could be seen shimmering only some five hundred or so paces away through a gap between two low hills to the west. With loud chanting the slaves began to haul the stone block. Ten men pushed from behind and another twenty or so hauled from the front on ropes tied to the block. As it began to move other men began to quickly take the rollers being exposed at the rear of the block and place them ahead. Nikolas noted the path down to the river was a constant downhill incline. Tied up on the riverbank sat a large flat barge with several granite blocks already placed amidships. The quarry reminded Nikolas of a nest of ants working away at a pile of crystallized honey, breaking pieces off and carrying them away.

  Nikolas was both distressed and nonplussed at the treatment of the villagers. What should have been prosperous communities of skilled and valued tradesmen resembled nothing more than slave pens. After a few minutes Nikolas was approached by a short and hairy individual wearing a stained loincloth, carrying a long leather whip curled up in his left hand. “By the carbuncles on Seth’s smelly arse, who the hell are you and what do you want?” he demanded peremptorily.

  “I’m a healer and I thought I’d see if any in these villages needed our services My name is Pallos,” Nikolas explained, using a name he invented on the spur of the moment. “And who are you?”

  “Khonsu. Imy-r kAt Mine Superintendent for the Aswan region. We have no need for healers here. Pharaoh provides all that his workers need!”

  Nikolas paused for a moment at this blatant lie, before saying, “I couldn’t help noticing that the villagers and workers around here seem very poor and wouldn’t be able to pay for our assistance anyway.” Nikolas paused again to allow Khonsu to comment. Khonsu remained silent and simply stared levelly at Nikolas. After twenty seconds or so Nikolas continued, “I’ve visited many villages, including those housing Pharaoh’s workers, and have never seen such poverty,” continued Nikolas. “It’s almost as if their rations are being stolen.”

  Khonsu scowled and replied, “No such thing. They’re paid by results and are lazy bastards. The men go to the city to drink away their wages.”

  “Strange that they’re all lazy alcoholics,” commented Nikolas before continuing. “Master Superintendent, I’ve heard of your skilled workers carving statues and sarcophagi from the rocks and we would like to see such marvels. Can you or your men give us instructions on how to reach these sites?”

  Despite an unfriendly and thoughtful look Khonsu’s reply was surprisingly helpful. “I have an imy-mSa foreman visiting those sites this afternoon. He can show you the way.” Khonsu strode away to make arrangements.

  Shortly afterwards Nikolas and Kiya were joined by a short wiry man who gestured for them to mount their donkeys and follow. The midday sun beat the ground like a hammer of fire, sending shimmering hazes to obscure the view of the way ahead. A strong northerly wind had sprung up, blowing dust and making Nikolas and Kiya draw their robes about their faces for protection. As the foreman strode ahead Nikolas tried to engage him in conversation, introducing himself and Kiya by the assumed names of Pallos and Asru. Their taciturn companion failed to reply other than with an occasional grunt and Nikolas assumed that he’d been instructed to remain silent.

  After a period of one-sided conversation Nikolas gave up and they continued in silence along the track which wound east away from the river. After about an hour they came to a site where, although not a quarry as such, there were many huge rocks lying exposed above the ground, rounded and worn by the elements.

  Masons clustered around several of these rocks, which were in close proximity to each other. Fabric awnings had been placed to provide shade as the workers stood or squatted and used basalt hammers and chisels to shape the pink granite. Nikolas could see that they were working on a series of six colossal mummiform rough-hewn statues, each fully ten cubits high. The statues ranged from barely started shaping of the rock to almost completed statues being undercut to free them ready for transport. Nikolas and Kiya watched entranced at the skilled work for nearly an hour before the foreman was ready to proceed.

  They travelled further east and after a journey of about another hour they came to another site. This was a small quarry where blocks of fine red granite of the highest quality had been freed from the quarry-face. Again, small parties of masons worked in the shade cast by awnings, but this time they were carefully hollowing out rough stone into sarcophagi or smoothing down the partly-completed stone coffins. Others, working individually or in pairs, were smoothing down the slabs that would become the coffin lids.

  Nikolas mused that given the effort involved in transportation it made sense to have the work at least semi-finished on site to reduce the weight to be moved and to minimize the chances of the waste that would be caused by having damaged or unacceptable work produced after transportation.

  The foreman, who had still not provided his name, said that there was a site not far to the south-east where a shrine had been cut into the hillside and the carvings and paintings were often appreciated by travellers. Nikolas was a little concerned as it was by now past midafternoon, with the sun well past its zenith. On being assured that the site was no more than half an hour away and there was a direct path back to the river, Nikolas agreed that they would go.

  Half an hour passed and still they proceeded, Nikolas and Kiya on their donkeys and the foreman pressing ahead on foot. To each of Nikolas’ queries the foreman assured him that the site was ‘just ahead’. Still they marched on. After nearly an hour they stopped in a small rocky valley and the foreman said that the shrine was just up a narrow gorge to the left. With some reluctance, but because of the effort involved so far in getting here, Nikolas dismounted and also helped Kiya dismount. Although they were assured the site was less than a hundred paces away, Nikolas plucked a water-skin from his saddle horn, noting as he did so that it was less than half full.

  As promised, there was indeed a small shrine a small distance up the gorge. A shrine had been cut into a soft sandstone hill and inside it was lined with panels of carved granite and plastered walls painted with now faded but still visible frescoes. Nikolas was reluctant to spend more than a short period inside as he was aware that the hour was getting late and they had a long distance to travel back to the river or a village. After about half an hour Nikolas chivvied Kiya to leave and they returned back down the narrow gorge to the valley.

  The valley was empty. Both their guide and the donkeys were gone.

  After a brief stunned and disbelieving silence Nikolas vented a series of sulphurous oaths in two languages. Kiya was similarly expressing her feelings in gutter-Egyptian. They’d been abandoned to their fate in a desolate landscape far from the nearest help, with no transport, no supplies and minimal water.

  With a sigh Kiya commented, “The tethered goat is staked out, has had all four feet tied together, its mouth bound shut and has heard the approach of the lion. It would appear that our questions were… unwelcome. What do we do now?”

  Nikolas sat in the shade cast by rocks and the low sun and quickly pondered. “I’ve got a good sense of direction and I’m reasonably sure that we can follow the pathway back to the sarcophagi quarry where workers will be tomorrow, but on foot we won’t reach the quarry before nightfall. Alternatively we can cut west towards the setting sun where, somewhere or other, lies the relative safety of the river. I’d prefer the greater certainty of return over a previously travelled path. What do you think?”

  “I agree,” replied Kiya. “It’ll probably take us about two hours to get to the quarry, maybe a little more with your bad leg. It’s about one hour to darkness and there’s no moon tonight. We have some water, although not much. We’ve both gone without food before, so that’s just a minor discomfort. At least we won’t be walking in the heat of the day!”

  They walked through the long shadows cast by the setting sun.

  All too quickly the sun set and the last light of dusk showed the uneven and rock-strewn pathway which wound through the narrow valley between th
e steep sides of the hills. Although the rocks continued to radiate the heat that they had absorbed from the sun during the day, movement could occasionally be seen amongst the rock-strewn landscape. Families of rock-hyrax, rodent-like creatures with adults as long as a man’s forearm, and individual long-eared cape-hares moved cautiously seeking the few plants and grasses that managed to exist even in this dry and rocky environment, each keeping a close watch for danger from both the air and the land. A few small rodents and lizards could be seen scurrying around looking for grass seeds or insects. A red fox was seen slinking away between rocks and disappeared into the shadows. Fortunately Nikolas had taken his walking staff with him to the temple. Made in their stay at Thebes, it was almost as tall as Nikolas himself and hollowed out to carry a small thin hidden sword. He also had a small bronze knife at his belt, as did Kiya.

  They preserved the small amount of water they carried as best they could, taking a small sip from time to time. Nikolas walked with the assistance of his staff, occasionally stumbling as his sandaled feet slipped on loose stones on the steeper parts of the rock-strewn pathway. With the coming of the new moon they were be unable to continue after dark, and as the last vestiges of light faded Nikolas chose a large rock off to the left of the pathway as their resting place for the night. Twice as high as a man, it was a difficult climb up the steep sides but as full darkness fell they were in place safely above the nearby ground. Even had Nikolas retained his travel pack, lost with the departed donkey, there was not so much as a dead bush to burn in a fire to keep off marauding animals.

  Shortly afterwards they heard the coughing laughs of first one and then several hyenas. “I’ll take the first watch for a couple of hours, then you can take over. Get some rest,” offered Kiya. An hour or so later they were both startled to hear a loud cough nearby on the pathway below. “What was that?” squealed Kiya.

  Nikolas peered over the edge of the rock, but it was too dark to see any movement. Moments later there was the noise of small stones being disturbed and scrabbling noises as several large animals tried to climb the sheer rock to where they lay just feet above.