The Poisoner of Ptah
Page 26
‘It’s an hour,’ Standard-Bearer Nadif echoed. ‘They must drink within the hour.’
The executioner, the Bringer of Death, nodded and walked away. Amerotke stared up at a ray of light from the grating above. He just wished it was over. Nadif and Shufoy had returned from the Temple of Ptah. They had found Minnakht’s hiding place. One of those water clocks had been cleverly used to hide both the Books of Doom as well as a generous collection of Minnakht’s poisons, each carefully inscribed in their jars or boxes. Other evidence had been found in his chamber, enough to convince the Chief Scribe to confess and throw himself on Pharaoh’s mercy. He had openly acknowledged in court, in the presence of Lord Valu the Chief Prosecutor, that the indictment Amerotke had presented was true in every way. He confirmed that he was the son of the author of the Ari Sapu, and described his career at the Temple of Ptah, his deep disappointment at not being promoted. In the end his story had become rambling, but he had confessed and been led away.
Meryet, faced with the hideous possibility of being either impaled or buried alive out in the hot desert sands, also admitted her guilt. She had confessed her hatred for Ipuye and acknowledged Amerotke’s indictment was true. Both had received the mercy verdict. They would be allowed to drink a cup of poison which would lead gently to death. Now, five days after the indictments had been presented, Amerotke stood and listened to the distant sounds from the temple above him as he waited for sentence to be carried out. Everything, he reflected, could change so quickly in Thebes. The Libyans had left, openly disconcerted. Hinqui had been banished to a village deep in the south. The news about Minnakht and the lady Meryet had swept Thebes. Others had come forward offering scraps of evidence which Lord Valu would have certainly used if either had elected for trial. In the end it had come to this.
Amerotke heard a sob from one of the cells and again walked down the passageway. Minnakht had drunk his cup and was lying on the ground like a child, hands beneath his face, staring at the doorway. Lady Meryet too was drinking. Amerotke stepped back, closed his eyes and murmured a short prayer. He knew the effect of the poison. The numbness in the legs would spread, and the victims would fall asleep and slip quietly into death.
After a while one of the guards called out.
‘It is finished…’
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Poisons were more deadly in ancient times because the authorities lacked the means to search for and analyse them. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century, for example, that clinical tests were introduced to detect the effects of arsenic. A. W. Blythe’s Poisons: their effects and detection (London, 1920) is one of the most fascinating studies, though rather dated. Poison in ancient times was regarded with the same horror as we view chemical or biological warfare today. Many of the accounts in my story are based on actual events from ancient history. In the fifth century BC Xenophon describes the devastating effects of poison honey from the Black Sea area. Pliny the Elder also talks about this ‘mad honey’. The most famous example of a skilled poisoner is Mithridates of Pontus, who lived in the first century BC. He had access to secret manuscripts from India and elsewhere, and became such an expert that he tried to produce theriac, a so-called antidote to all poisons. Finally, lapis lazuli was used as decoration, as well as to give people a better grip on shiny floors. The crushed blue stone (of sulphuric origin) was mingled with gold dust which made it shine.
Interest in the cultivation of poisons was common in Egypt, as it was in China and the civilisations of the Indus valley. Poison terrorists are also not just a phenomenon of modern times. The Latin writer Dio Cassius mentions epidemics of man-made poisons, people being pricked on the streets with specially smeared pins. Ancient Egypt’s flora and fauna, as well as its access to the teeming lush jungles of the south, made it a leading centre for the collection and distillation of potions and powders as deadly as any modern-day toxin.
Paul C. Doherty
July 2006
Website: www.paulcdoherty.com
Also by P. C. Doherty
The Rose Demon
The Soul Slayer
The Haunting
Domina
The Plague Lord
Murder Imperial
The Song of the Gladiator
The Queen of the Night
The Cup of Ghosts
Egyptian Pharaoh trilogy
An Evil Spirit Out of the West
The Year of the Cobra
Ancient Egyptian mysteries
The Mask of Ra
The Horus Killings
The Anubis Slayings
The Slayers of Seth
The Assassins of Isis
Hugh Corbett medieval mysteries
Satan in St. Mary’s
Crown in Darkness
Spy in Chancery
The Angel of Death
The Prince of Darkness
Murder Wears a Cowl
The Assassin in the Greenwood
The Song of a Dark Angel
Satan’s Fire
The Devil’s Hunt
The Demon Archer
The Treason of the Ghosts
Corpse Candle
The Magician’s Death
The Waxman Murders
The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan
The Nightingale Gallery
The House of the Red Slayer
Murder Most Holy
The Anger of God
By Murder’s Bright Light
The House of Crows
The Assassin’s Riddle
The Devil’s Domain
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
THE POISONER OF PTAH. Copyright © 2007 by Paul Doherty. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Doherty, P. C.
The poisoner of Ptah : a story of intrigue and murder set in ancient Egypt / P. C. Doherty.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35962-1
ISBN-10: 0-312-35962-4
1. Egypt—History—To 332 B.C.—Fiction. 2. Amerotke (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Judges—Fiction. 4. Scribes—Fiction. 5. Murder—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6054.O37 P65 2008
823'.914—dc22
2007040213
First published in Great Britain by Headline Publishing Group
First U.S. Edition: February 2008
eISBN 9781466834002
First eBook edition: November 2012