Chapter Twenty: Reunited
“No, wait!” Kiya shouted after Dennu and wished she had found more words of comfort for his troubled soul.
She was about to run after him, but was stopped by Huy, who grasped her arm. “Leave him be, Kiya. Let’s hope he comes to his senses. If not, he has a long walk home with neither food nor drink nor any money with which to buy them.”
“What if Massui’s horsemen find him?” cried Kiya.
“That’s his misfortune. We have sacrificed enough for that ungrateful boy," said Huy. He helped Laylos pack up the picnic, while Kiya watched Dennu walk down the road until he rounded a corner and was out of sight.
“Perhaps we should wait for him here,” she said.
“No need,” said Huy. “If he wants to come back he will know in which direction we have gone.”
Kiya reluctantly joined her aunt and Huy as they set off towards Thebes. They walked in silence along the high road and looked down on a panorama. The swollen Nile filled the bottom of the valley and was dotted with islands, where houses had been built on higher ground. People could be seen, walking on raised pathways or paddling reed boats. Some even waded through the flood in areas where the water was shallow.
On the other side of the road were scattered palms and scrubby vegetation, for the Nile flood did not reach so far and the soil was poor. Beyond the scrub rose the rocky wall that marked the edge of the valley.
They made good progress along the wide, beaten track and, after a while, came to a village with market stalls laid out along the roadway. The houses behind the stalls were small – little more than hovels, but Kiya felt a surge of excitement when she saw them, for they were build from sun-dried bricks, like her own home.
Laylos inspected a baker’s stall. “Those loaves are small,” she said.
“Then buy two,” said the baker. “You look like a woman who enjoys her food.”
“None of your cheek,” said Laylos. “I’ll have one plain and one spiced. Are those honey cakes fresh?”
“Made this morning with my own hands.”
“Hmm. I’ll have three. No, better make it four.”
Kiya felt pleased that Laylos had included Dennu in her calculations. She followed her aunt to a meat stall, while Huy wandered further down the road with Enno.
“We need something we can eat while we journey,” her aunt said to the stall holder.
“I have some dried fish,” he said.
Laylos peered at his offering disdainfully. “Fish? Minnows more like,” she said. “Save them for your sacred cat, such tiny bones would choke a mere mortal. I’ll have one of those smoked duck. How much is it?”
“A tin ring.”
Laylos grimaced but handed over the money.
“Is there anything else you would like?” asked the man as he wrapped the duck in a sheet of papyrus.
“Not at your prices,” said Laylos. “Come, Kiya, I see a fruit stall. We must get some dates.” Kiya looked hungrily at a pile of figs. They were a luxury she had not enjoyed since leaving the temple, but she had no money and was embarrassed to ask her aunt.
Huy returned. “There’s an inn at the end of the village. I suggest we stop for refreshment and get the barrel filled.”
“Good idea,” said Laylos. “I need a wash and a brush up and my stomach tells me it must be nearly lunch time. A hot meal would do us all good.”
The inn was a larger building, set back from the road, with the hieroglyph of a winepress painted on the wall. Huy tied Enno to a hitching rail, next to a trough. The donkey plunged his nose into the water and drank thirstily.
Kiya looked back at the bustling crowd in the market and wondered if she would ever see Dennu again. “If Dennu sees Enno outside the inn, he will know we are in here,” she said.
“Stop fussing about that boy,” said Laylos. “If he wants to find us he will. I think you are starting to have feelings for him, Kiya.”
“No, of course not,” said Kiya. But she was flustered and, under Laylos’s quizzical eye, she could feel her colour heighten. She turned away and followed Huy into the inn.
After the brightness of the day it took some seconds for Kiya’s eyes to adjust to the gloom of the interior. The layout of the building was similar to Fai-Nofre’s inn in Gesem – a large room lined with seating benches and with a counter upon which stood a barrel of beer. There were two rooms beyond the bar - their doors were closed, but Kiya assumed they were bedrooms. A corridor ran between them, leading to a walled yard. The door to the yard was open and an appetizing smell of cooking food drifted into the inn. Kiya’s mouth watered. She looked around the room and could see nobody, not even the inn keeper.
“Service, please!” called out Huy, stepping up to the counter.
The daylight coming from the yard was blocked by the portly figure of a man. He waddled down the corridor with a smile upon his face.
“Can I help you. Sir?”
“What hot food can you offer us?”
“Stew, Sir, and freshly baked bread.”
“What sort of stew is it?” asked Huy.
The man shrugged. “Fish, fowl, meat, vegetables – anything my wife can find in the market.”
“Hmmm” Huy looked doubtful.
“It’s highly recommended, Sir.”
“Very well,” said Huy. “We’ll have three bowls, and some bread.”
Laylos whispered to Kiya, “That inn keeper certainly seems to thrive on his food.”
When the stew arrived, Kiya found it as rich and tasty as its aroma promised. She was wiping up the last of the gravy with her bread when she heard Dennu’s voice. “I have returned to apologise.”
She turned and saw him standing in the doorway.
“Come in, sit down and join us,” said Huy waving him over to the seating platform.
Dennu squeezed in beside Huy and Kiya. “I’m sorry I was so ungrateful,” he said. “I have been thinking about how much you gave up in order to rescue me.”
“Another bowl of your excellent stew!” Huy called to the innkeeper.
“Kiya was worried about you,” said Laylos.
“I’m glad,” said Dennu. “Kiya is one of the reasons I came back.” He patted her thigh with an intimate gesture that embarrassed her.
The innkeeper put a steaming bowl topped by a chunk of bread on the counter. Huy rose to his feet, paid for it and carried it to Dennu “Eat up, boy. You must be hungry after such a tantrum.” He grinned at Dennu, who smiled back sheepishly.
“I must admit, I’m starving,” he said. He grabbed the bowl and started to eat.
Laylos stood up. “Come on, Huy,” she said. “We must return to the market and organise our provisions. You wait here with Dennu, Kiya.” She gave Kiya a wink, then took Huy’s arm and dragged him out into the sunshine.
Kiya’s felt discomfited as she watched the two of them depart. She was only grateful that Dennu was too busy wolfing down stew to notice Laylos’s wink.
There was a long pause, then Dennu said, “This food is excellent. I’m glad I decided to come back.”
“You came back because you were hungry?” asked Kiya.
“Oh no,” he assured her, “I returned because of you. I’ve lost so much, I could not bear to lose you as well.”
“You need not worry,” she said. “I will always be your friend.”
“Friendship? Surely we have more than that? I’m in love with you, Kiya.”
Kiya’s heart sank. “You are mistaken. It is too soon. You hardly know me.”
“What has time got to do with it? I loved you from the moment I saw you. You looked so beautiful and brave standing among those fisherman in the Great Hall. Now that I have lost my powers and my prospects I am free to declare myself.”
“Oh!” Kiya was lost for words. Perhaps Dennu truly did love her. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him, but he was too young, too inexperienced, too arrogant. Compared to Anubis all men must fail for who but he had the wisdom of ages.
&n
bsp; “I would do anything for you, Kiya.”
“I would do anything for you too, Dennu, but...”
“You have already proven your love to me. You risked your life to save me.” Dennu leaned forwards and kissed her. She felt his lips, soft but urgent upon her mouth and she pulled away, aware of the curious eyes of the innkeeper upon them.
“No Dennu, you have misunderstood,” she said. “I had to save you because you risked your life for me.”
She saw him look at her with a mixture of hurt and dismay. “What I did for love, you did out of a sense of obligation?”
Kiya opened her mouth to speak but before she could utter a word, Laylos burst into the inn, closely followed by Huy.
“Horsemen are coming!” she cried.
Kiya and the God of Chaos Page 20
