Chapter Forty One: The Street of Goldsmiths
When she reached the city, Kiya dismounted and led Enno through the market. People were starting to erect stalls and lay out their wares. She noticed that in the farmer’s area there were few sellers - Teos was not alone in keeping food back, ready for hard times ahead. A fishmonger was busy, the crowd around his stall eager to buy, despite complaining about his raised prices. The smell of freshly-caught fish made Kiya queasy and she hurried past.
At the temple she paused to look at what had once been the pride of Thebes. It was a sorry sight now, most of the obelisks were gone and men were dismantling the walls. Three ox carts stood being loaded with sacks from the temple granary.
Kiya sighed as she remembered the splendour that had been the Ipet-Isut Temple with its great processions and festivals. How quickly the glory had gone. Nothing was left now but a soulless ruin. She led Enno on until she reached an alleyway that was narrow and had two guards at the entrance. It was the Street of Goldsmiths.
Kiya felt nervous as she entered the alley. It was a part of Thebes she had not visited before. Even as a dancing girl she had never earned enough money to buy golden jewellery. The ornamentation she had worn at festivals belonged to the temple.
She stopped at the first yard and looked in. A man was sitting at a table under the shade of an awning, hammering a small, gold sheet that was already paper-thin.
She entered nervously through an arched doorway. “Would you like to buy a nugget?” she asked.
The man looked up and his eyes narrowed as he stared at the nugget she was holding out to him. “Where did you get this?”
Kiya had already invented an answer to this question and said, “It was for services rendered.” She blushed as she said it and the man nodded.
“They must have been some services!” He took the nugget, examined it, tested it with his teeth and then handed it back to her. “This is too valuable for me to buy. You will have to go and see old Merkah, next door. I reckon it is worth at least fifty copper rings.”
Kiya thanked him and turned to leave. As she did so she saw a man standing in the archway. He stared at her, but when she met his eyes he looked hurriedly away. She frowned. She didn’t like the look of him. There was something predatory about the way he slunk back into the gloom of the narrow street.
She hurried towards Merkah’s workshop and when she reached the entrance to his courtyard she looked back. The man was still there, waiting in the shadows and she imagined that his eyes glowed red as he watched her.
Merkah was an older man. He was drinking a beaker of beer but put it down when she approached and looked at her with curious eyes. “I have been told to come to you with this,” she said, holding out the nugget to him.
He took it, weighed it on a pair of scales, tested it with his teeth and said. “Thirty copper rings.”
“I was told it was worth fifty,” she said.
He shrugged. “You were told that by an optimist. Take it elsewhere if you are not satisfied.” He peered at her and smiled. “I will add ten pieces of turquoise, since you are such a pretty girl. But you be careful with all this money, there are many thieves about.”
Kiya thanked him, took the money and put it into her waist purse. “You be careful too,” she said.
“Oh, I am.” He indicated the roof terrace above him. Kiya looked up and saw a man with a throwing spear staring down at them. “That is my son,” he said. “I would not trust even the guards nowadays.”
These are desperate times, indeed, thought Kiya. She thanked the goldsmith and led Enno back down the street. There was no sign of the man who had been following her, but when she looked back she saw him slip into a doorway.
“I think I am being followed,” she said to one of the guards at the entrance.
“With a figure like that, I’m not surprised,” he said with a leer.
“I would follow you myself, given half the chance,” said the other and they both laughed.
Kiya was frightened - there was no help to be had from the guards. She hurried through Thebes until she reached the temple. The ox carts were fully loaded and ready to go. Each one had a soldier in charge.
“Are you taking that grain to Akhetaten?” Kiya asked the soldier beside the front cart.
He was a big, stern-looking man and he frowned at her. “What’s it to you?”
“I was wondering if I could come with you.”
He brightened. “Are you a tart? We could do with more tarts in Akhetaten.”
“No, I am a respectable woman,” Kiya was affronted.
“In that case you cannot come with us. We are on the King’s business.”
“I need protection,” said Kiya. He shook his head. “I could pay you,” she said.
“How much?”
“A copper ring.”
“There are three of us,” he said. “That would be three copper rings. I doubt if a girl like you has so much money.”
“Yes I have,” she said. She reached into her waist purse and pulled out three copper rings.
He was impressed. “Very well,” he said as he took the rings. “You can follow us with your donkey.”
The ox carts set off, rumbling at a slow pace. Kiya looked back and saw the man. He stood in the middle of the road, not bothering to remain hidden. Kiya had half a mind to wave goodbye but there was something so menacing in his glare that she turned hurriedly away.
She could hear the sound of an angry crowd long before they came in sight of the quay. A woman’s shrill voice rose above the multitude. “Let us through! May Ammut devour your cruel hearts.”
A man cried out, “My children are starving. I must find work in the new city.”
The ox carts rounded a corner and Kiya could see a line of armed soldiers protecting the docking area, where a ship was roped. They pushed the people aside to allow the carts through, but when Kiya attempted to follow they blocked her way.
“Let me pass!” Kiya cried.
“This ship is reserved for the King,” said one of the soldiers.
The crowd were not on her side and she could hear angry murmurs.
”Bloody cheek trying to push her way through like that!”
“Who does she think she is?”
The man leading the rear ox cart saw what was happening and left his animal to hurry back. “She is with us,” he said.
“Civilians are not allowed on the King’s ships.”
The man slipped something into the soldiers hand. He glanced down and, without changing his expression, he stood to one side and allowed Kiya to go through.
“Thank you,” she said to her rescuer, when they were safely on the quayside. “What did you give that soldier?”
“The copper ring you bribed us with,” he said.
Her heart was full of gratitude. It would have been so easy for him to keep the ring and leave her behind. “I will give you another,” she assured him.
He grinned at her. He was young, so young that he reminded her of Dennu when they had first met. “Thank you, though I would be honoured to protect you without need of payment.”
“Stop chatting and get that bloody cart on the ship,” yelled the leader of the oxcarts, who had already steered his animal up the gangway and now stood on the deck, holding its rope.
The other two carts followed, the oxen straining to take their heavy loads up the steeply-angled planks. Kiya followed with Enno and watched the boat being untied. Beyond the soldiers the crowd were as hostile as ever.
“There’s ample room for us on that boat!”
“Why is that girl allowed on?”
The sails unfurled and the ship pulled away. Kiya turned her back on the west bank of Thebes. It was no longer the city she knew and loved. It had become a vicious wasps nest.
Kiya and the God of Chaos Page 41
