by Gary Gygax
WHO WAS WITH THE HIGH PRIEST
"Ah, Inhetep! Good to see you this evening." Tuhorus beamed as the ur-kheri-heb-tepi joined him and Xonaapi in the lounge salon. "You look surprisingly well-rested and fit, Magister. Another of your magickal elixirs? Or some other tonic?"
"Harumph," the priest-wizard responded in his throat. "I see your tongue is well-exercised, Tuhorus. Why not allow it to rest?"
"Yes, although Lady Xonaapi might object, for I was just telling her of a hairdresser nearby, as well as a perfumer and a jeweler who—"
"I believe that Magister Setne Inhetep has more burdensome matters on his mind, dear Chief Inspector," the girl interjected with a purr. "Perhaps we should attend to his concerns."
Tuhorus was neatly taken aback by that. "Well, if I'm not—"
"Not paying attention to what the clever young lady said," Inhetep supplied. "We do have certain matters which must be seen to, Chief Inspector."
"And Lady Xonaapi?"
"We'll all have dinner here together, and then I propose we visit the governor's palace. There's a fine young officer there, my dear," the magister said with a smile of the warmest sort, "who might be suitable to escort you for an evening of entertainment while we go about our dreary investigative chores. Does that suit you?"
"The dinner is fine, Setne Inhetep. As to the rest, I am doubtful, but I know I can't monopolize you entirely. If it is your wish, I'll make do until you have time for me."
Tuhorus chuckled—almost snickered in fact, but managed to swallow it. The wizard-priest blithely ignored him, inclining his head to Xonaapi and saying, "Thank you, my lady." He thereupon summoned various members of the inn's staff to attend properly to them.
After their repast, the three left the Reedfields and went by carriage to the nearby palace, Inhetep insisting that a lady should arrive soon as a chaperone. Actually, he paid the driver to remain on duty to serve Xonaapi and young Bekin-Tettu, hopefully, all night. "Just in case you might need to go elsewhere, Xonaapi, I'll see that this vehicle stays out here for a time, at least. It will be at your command, of course." The silver coins he then placed in the driver's hand were quite sufficient to keep the man on duty for the whole night and into the next day as well.
Inhetep had a dual purpose for the visit. If the subaltern could be brought in to assist with Xonaapi, so much the better, but the magister first and foremost desired to investigate again the subterranean regions of the palace.
Thankfully, Bekin-Tettu was neither on duty nor away from the soldiers quarters, and soon he and the girl were chatting as if they were old friends. Inhetep had sent immediately for the guardsman and asked if he would serve as an escort and protector for Xonaapi, a witness in the murder case who might be in danger. That was stretching the truth, but one look at the girl's striking beauty was sufficient to convince the subaltern that he was doing a valuable service. "That saves us from having to take her with us," the tall priest-wizard almost whispered to the policeman, even though the two young people were so busy talking and laughing that they couldn't have overheard him.
"She seems to be quite taken with that young guardsman, Inhetep," the inspector noted. "Aren't you . . . ?"
"Tuhorus, you mistake me. Don't make such an error again! Now let's leave it at that, shall we? I have only her best interests at heart; my regret is that I neglected to think of this sooner."
"Why so?"
"Come on," the magister said curtly. "We have to do a little exploring beneath this place. Bekin-Tettu and Lady Xonaapi won't miss us, and I've made it clear to the commander of the guards that the subaltern is now on special duty with the Utchatu, so he'll not have to worry about reporting."
"That seems to indicate you think well be at this for a long while, Magister. Is there likely to be much here not already discovered?"
"No, not here; but I believe we'll have much to accomplish elsewhere. 1 hope you slept well and long, Tuhorus, for this night is likely to become a very long day, so to speak."
Magister Inhetep didn't bother to seek out hidden entrances to the basement but instead asked to be taken to the stairs which led to the cellars of the palace. Once there, he and the policeman began a rapid survey of the rooms and passages. There were extensive works there, of course, built for storage and utility purposes. It didn't take long for them to find the section which had been closed, for Tuhorus had an old map from before the time Ram-f-amsu had been nome governor.
"The prince's agents 'updated' plans of the palace complex, Inhetep," the inspector quipped, "but they missed this copy which was buried in the prefecture's files. What are we looking for, anyway?"
"The escape route got me to thinking," Inhetep replied. "Such a passage might not be unique, and there are many tunnels, conduits, adits, and such running under the city."
"Of course. Sewers, aqueducts, and—but what's the use of that?"
"Here. Help me search the walls in this chamber Ram-f-amsu used as an armory. All this equipment had to get here somehow. It wasn't marched in through the front door."
It didn't take more than an hour for the two trained men to discover a very well-concealed trapdoor, which took them down beneath the palace's dungeonlike cellars. Below that basement level, they found several narrow passageways; it seemed that these, in turn, led to a maze of other subterranean corridors. "We could wander in this filthy labyrinth for weeks," Tuhorus muttered, as they peered from one to another long tunnel by the magickal witchlight the magister had produced.
"No need for that, my friend," the ur-kheri-heb told him. "You and I have more useful matters to concern us now. I'm sure that a team from the Metropolitan Prefecture can eventually map out this whole warren to your satisfaction." Inhetep paused and looked at the policeman, and Tuhorus nodded agreement. "But there's a wager I'll make with you now, Tuhorus, if you're willing."
"Which is?"
"That one of these passages will connect to the Temple of Set and that another will exit at some hidden spot near one of the docks along the Nylle here in On."
"Your confidence is sufficient, Magister. No wager." Tuhorus was still peering up into the green eyes of the tall wizard-priest. "Yet despite all this, I am baffled. What does this prove? I'll be rolled into Re-stau's flaming lakes if I see how any of this connects to the murder of the governor, Matiseth Chemres, or Aufseru!"
"Ah, Inspector Tuhorus, have patience. That will be clear to you soon enough, I think. Let's leave these dark and cramped spaces now. Some fresh air and a walk will do us a world of good."
"I have a feeling that's only mild exercise preliminary to what you have in store for us tonight, Utchat-neb."
Inhetep led the way back, and before they left the partially destroyed palace building, he made a brief detour into the burned wing in which Prince Ram-f-amsu had had his personal apartment. "Perhaps you're correct about tonight, Chief Inspector; but that remains to be seen. I hope your feeling is an omen. Help me search the walls here, please," the magister asked as he made his way through the debris of the fire into the room which had been the governor's private study. "The flames should have assisted us, for they will have burned away any concealing obstacles."
Tuhorus was pleased to help. "Here's a magick portal of some sort, Magister," he said, pointing to the scorched but otherwise intact section of a wall which had been screened by shelving. "Is that what you are looking for?"
"No. I saw its linking gate below, Tuhorus. What we must try to locate is a normal secret panel—and I am positive there's one here." With that, the hawk-nosed detective went to work, testing and trying the stones of the wall. Tuhorus joined him. It wasn't long before Inhetep was rewarded. A section which seemed solid swung inward, and there behind it was a narrow staircase of stone which spiralled downward. "What did I tell you?"
"And who would have thought to look for such a way directly beside a heka-engendered portal?" Tuhorus whistled. "What need for so conventional an escape route when Ram-f-amsu could easily have stepped through the magick door to .
. . wherever?"
"It was for other sorts of comings and goings. See here? There's been plenty of traffic, too. The marks of both sandals and bare feet are plain to see in the dust and dirt of the steps."
"Not so many as you think, Magister. I can make out three or four different sandals having come this way—and the bare-footed prints, of course," the policeman said after going down and peering at the stairs. "No more than five different persons have been here in the recent past."
"One set will certainly have been made by Ram-f-amsu, and probably there are prints of Chemres' sandals there, too. Let's assume that his aide, Aufseru, is the third, and the uab, Absobek-khaibet, made the fourth set of marks there. You can find sandals from each to prove those assumptions, of course."
"Even the uab's?"
"Let's hope so. We'll go to the temple now and try our luck."
"And the unshod footprints? To whom do they belong, Inhetep?"
The tall wizard-priest smiled. "Now that, my dear Chief Inspector Tuhorus, is the key question, for whomever made those footprints assassinated the prince and the other two, as well."
The heat of the day had abated with the setting sun, so the mile walk to the Temple of Set was quite pleasant. Palms rustled in the night breeze, and the gentle wind sent tantalizing whiffs of fragrances from night-blooming flowers in the little parks and walled gardens they passed on their route. In most quarters of the city, there would have been far less pleasant odors wafted to them by the breeze, but the triangle of On between the governor's palace, the Reedfieids Inn, and the House of Set was certainly the best portion of the community. Tall, official buildings, palaces and mansions of minor nobles and rich citizens, and walled villas with elaborate gardens screened by stone barriers were laid out in neat Mocks. Wide avenues and narrow strips of vegetation were common here. Not far distant, however, were the narrow streets and twisting alleys of the city's less prosperous sectors, and the jumble of the riverfront which shouldered both sides of the well-kept quarter Inhetep and Tuhorus now traversed.
"Too bad the whole of On can't be more like this." The policeman sighed as they neared the temple grounds, "I've seen Thebes and Luxor and Karnak—beautiful. Memphis too is well-kept and prosperous, now that Saqara is but a district within that city."
"Innu and On move toward conjoining, Tuhorus, but I fear that the latter will forever be the shabby cousin of the former-—at least as long as your city remains the most active Nylle river port in Lower /Egypt. You and I will perhaps see the two joined as a single entity, and into a single sepat as well, but we shall be long in the Duat before On becomes a garden spot."
"I am a follower of Light, Magister," Tuhorus told him. "I hope that iny spirit dwells in Pet, not the dimness of the Duat."
"Well, be that as it may, whether in a heavenly sphere or that of the shadowy underworld, Tuhorus, you and I will be elsewhere, shall we say."
"Agreed."
"But not the elsewhere of Set and his ilk," Inhetep murmured as they came to the pyloned entrance to the temple complex. "That I wish on no decent person. Don't you often wonder how so many people can serve such as those of malign gloom?"
"Stupidity, greed, maliciousness . .. Shall I go
on?"
"No, for the clerics inside will take offense," The ur-kheri-heb grinned. "Truth may be relative in general, but it is firm in particular cases." They were at the temple's gates then, so Inhetep stopped speaking and pulled on the bell chain. Almost immediately a novice came to open the heavy doors, and when he saw who the two were, hastened to convey them inside. Regular services were suspended until a new high priest could take over. In the interim, the ranking "prophet" was in charge of the whole place. Such a temple as this had several such priests, those above the uabs but not yet advanced in the ecclesiastical hierarchy so as to be principal clerics. The one appointed to serve here was a sallow-skinned southerner, but his red hair probably guaranteed him success in due course.
"I am Prophet Eketi," he announced solemnly upon joining the two detectives in the antechamber of the priests' wing. "I assume this is an official call?"
"You assume right," Magister Inhetep almost snapped. "I can think of no other reason to be here, can you?"
The man, unable to make a quick response, stared blankly, a flush rising in his face, so Tuhorus asked, "Is there anyone from the prefecture here now, Prophet Eketi?"
"No, Chief Inspector. The rooms which were ... those of the former hem-neter-tepi are closed— sealed—and all of us were forbidden to enter them. We have obeyed, of course. After shutting that area off, the officials from the city police left."
"Shall we go there now, Magister?"
"No, Tuhorus. There is something we should find out first, and the 'prophet' here can assist, I think, eh, Eketi?"
"Pardon, Magister? I am uncertain . . ."
"You have been the ranking priest here for how long?"
Eketi puffed and seemed both proud and annoyed at once. "Very nearly five years now—before Matiseth Chemres came as hem-neter-tepi, in fact."
That was an unusually long time for serving in a temple as a second. Typically, such a clerical position led to assignment elsewhere, a lesser temple's headship or officiating at some important shrine. That the prophet had been here so long indicated either lack of competence or a political foe within the temple organization. As a priest-wizard himself, Inhetep was very aware of this. "Passed over unfairly were you, Eketi?"
"In truth I—" The man looked hard at the ur-kheri-heb, cutting off his words in order to assess the magister. "I have been," he finally said with a certain pride, "for I disavow involvement in matters of politics—state politics, that is."
"As I thought. Come, Prophet Eketi, you haven't taken this unfair treatment without some coun-termeasures, have you?"
"Not in the least, sir, not in the least. I've made a complete record of everything."
"Please show Chief Inspector Tuhorus and me your records, then—especially those pertaining to the staffing of the temple. I'm certain you maintained notes on personnel—your own roster, not that which the high priest retained.''
Eketi gave a sly smile and took them into his own cramped office. There he produced several little diaries: his carefully scribed notes on what had occurred in the temple over nearly five years' time. One with a dull red binding had lists of all ecclesiastic and secular personnel employed over that period of time. "Do you desire information on slaves? workers? priestesses? or priests?"
"Unquestionably detailed," Tuhorus murmured as he glanced over the cleric's shoulder at the book.
"On priests—uab rank, to be exact. Do you have an Absobek-khaibet listed?"
"Yes," Prophet Eketi said smugly, "of course I do. Here. Uab Absobek-khaibet joined us six months ago, coming here from the south by recommendation of the Innu Temple.. .. Now that's odd!"
"What do you mean?" prodded the magister.
"It is decidedly unlike me not to have made any notes regarding the fellow's performance here—his habits, predilections, weaknesses and .. . well, you understand." The cleric wasn't satisfied with that, however. He went back to his collection of materials and found another work, this one a record of attendant priests promoted to uab status. After several minutes of page turning and mumbling, Eketi exclaimed, "Here!" He handed the notebook to Magister Inhetep, one yellowish, long-nailed finger pointing to an entry. "This is the fellow."
Tuhorus came to view the entry, peering around the tall priest-wizard's shoulder. There, where the priest of Set pointed, was an entry noting that an attendant cleric, Absobek-khaibet of Ab-ydos, had attained uab status after serving in various lesser capacities for nine years. "I note that at that time he was posted to Suakin," the policeman commented.
"Yes," the cleric said, without looking at either of the two. "I wonder why I didn't note that in my journal when he was sent here. Such a place! How he managed to connive a transfer from there to Innu is beyond all understanding."
"We've seen en
ough, thank you, Prophet Eketi. Chief Inspector Tuhorus and I will now examine Matiseth Chemres' quarters—you'll certainly wish to make a note of that fact, won't you?"
Tuhorus saw the wizard-priest wink as Inhetep turned and left the cell-like room so filled with records. He couldn't help winking back, for Eketi was so petty and grasping. The prophet, however, failed to notice the jape and was scribbling furiously away in yet another of his tomes. "Of course, Ur-kheri-heb-tepi of Thoth. I must note that and the potential conflict between your position in the Utchatu and your devotion to the . . ."
They left him mumbling on as they proceeded toward the place where Chemres had dwelled. There were altogether five rooms and a private garden provided for the high priest of the temple. The outside wasn't of interest, nor the council room. The other four chambers, including the bath, had to be searched, "just what are we seeking, Magister?" queried the policeman.
"Sssh!" Inhetep cautioned as he used a dagger to cut the lead seal on the door. "We'll come to that in a moment, Tuhorus," he whispered. "For now, let's just be as stealthy as burglars."
"What on Yarth for?" asked the chief inspector in an equally hashed tone. "This area is— was—sealed. Are we going to surprise beetles and rodents?"
The magister looked down into the policeman's eyes and nodded. "Indeed, Tuhorus, indeed. We just might happen upon a rat, and a highly dangerous one at that. If you aren't highly adept at using heka in self-defense, Chief Inspector, I suggest that you have a weapon ready. No sword?" As he spoke, Inhetep eased open the heavy door and slipped through into the darkness beyond.
Tuhorus took him at his word, unsheathed his blade and showed the dagger to Inhetep, as he crept into the room. Inhetep shut the door and the chief inspector stood still, allowing his eyes to adjust to the gloom, for the only illumination there came from dimly glimmering motes high above on the ceiling. This was the personal chapel of the hem-neter-tepi, with a screened sanctuary for Set and two other associated deities. Besides some typical furnishings for such a place—incense burners on slender-legged stands, chests for service pieces, and the like—the room was clear and uncluttered. Across its length, at its left-hand corner, was a hanging which covered the archway leading to the chamber beyond. There was no sound audible or light visible behind that screening drapery, nothing at all to indicate there was another soul present in the dead high priest's suite. "Shall we begin searching?" asked Tuhorus in a hushed voice.